The Kosovo Cover-Up(Origin of the Wesley Clark Character Issue)

Newsweek ^ | May 15, 2000 | John Barry And Evan Thomas

[bolobaby]

Not to mention the hundreds of mass graves that were never uncovered...

Yet... strangely... I never heard the calls "where are the mass graves, Mr. President" from the shrill anti-war movement. I wonder why...?

[Torie]

Well, my recollection was that that the Serb armor avoided damage because it stayed parked in camouflaged spots, and didn't move. Thus while it avoided damage, it was rendered ineffective. When Kosovar troop spotters finally got in country however, and spotted the sites, then the armor began to be flushed out, and wiped out. After a couple of incidents like that, Slobo folded his hand. He knew the jig was up.

So I think the article is errant, except for the bit perhaps that it offers up yet another example of Clark's pathological tendency to prevaricate.

What's your recollection Hop?

[Cicero]

How unexpected. Newsweak managed to write this piece in May 2000 without mentioning clinton once. Clark lied. The military lied. Heavens forbid that clinton lied about that dirty war.

They also forgot to ask why Milosevitch decided to surrender. Basically it was because wesley clark was bombing the hell out of the civilian population, had destroyed all their transportation, factories, dams, and power supplies, and was ready to see the people of Belgrade freeze in the dark in midwinter. I wonder who instructed clark to bomb the TV station in Belgrade, to take one instance? Or the Chinese embassy?

That was back when Newsweak was anxious that al gore should win the coming election, and could care less about Wesley Clark. Gore had a clinton problem, so Newsweak would not want to make clinton look any worse than he already did. Needless to say, they would not publish this article bashing clark today, when the clintons are backing him as their stalking horse.

[prairiebreeze]

Gen. Shelton / Weasley Clark ping

Prairie

[SC Swamp Fox]

Bump.

Good find. Bookmarked.

[Vineyard]

I think this article is more "dead on" than anyone from the DemoCrap side might want to consider.

The high altitude bombing was totally ineffective against the mobile targets in Kosovo. The only bombing that was effective was the bombing against the Serb civilian targets. Note that our bombing in Iraq was the opposite - we went out of our way to avoid damage to civilians, and we certainly didn't want to damage the civilian infrastructure in Iraq.

Unfortunately, the Clintonistas and the military higher-ups didn't give a damn about the Serb civilians or Serbian infrastructure, and they did a lot of damage. (The idiots claiming Bush is a war criminal should consider the real damage done by Clinton.) The Clinton administration didn't want to consider that Kosovo, a long-time province of Serbia had a majority of ethic Albanians ONLY because the ethnic Albanians had a) done ethnic cleansing of Serbians during WWII (and the Serbs were reliable allies of the Allies, while the Albanians whole-heartedly supported the Nazis - including genocide of enemies) and also b) Serbia and Kosovo had a better economy, so Albanians came into Kosovo (sort of the way that Mexicans come into California/Arizona/Texas. Imagine what would happen if the UN supported a "plebiscite" where Southern California could vote to separate from the US and become part of Mexico. At least So.California was at one time part of Mexico ... while Kosovo's relationship to Serbia would be more like Boston and Plymouth Rock is to the U.S.)

When the Serbs were bombed into submission and agreed to withdraw - they were able to DRIVE most all their armour - tanks, etc., out of Kosovo - all intact. The military was surprised at the amount of weaponry that survived .... but the Serbs were good at "spoofing".

We were on the wrong side. The evidence of ethnic cleansing is 1/100th as reliable as the evidence of WMDs in Iraq.

Mike

[prairiebreeze]

You all might find this interesting. Especially in view of date of article.....

Prairie

[bray]

He did manage to hit a passenger train and a Chinese embassy though. Have we left his Bosnia quagmire yet??? I guess PravdABDNC has more important wars to fight...er report!

Pray for W and The Truth

[kennedy]

Not to mention the hundreds of mass graves that were never uncovered...

That's not true. We did finally find mass graves containing thousands of men, women and children.

The problem is, they were all in Iraq.

[vladog]

Clark is a nut! If the Dem's get a Dean/Clark ticket going in 2004 that would will be a new low, even for the Dem's.

[Torie]

I'm sorry. I don't agree with a thing you wrote. Some other time perhaps. As a lagniappe, the "Albanians" have been a majority in Kosovo since probably the 17th century, and certainly by the end of the 18th century. Serbia's own census confirms that majority pre world war II.

[csmusaret]

If Cohen, Shelton and Clark were all telling the same lie,what are the integrity issues Shelton has with Clark?

[Prodigal Son]

Well, my recollection was that that the Serb armor avoided damage because it stayed parked in camouflaged spots, and didn't move. Thus while it avoided damage, it was rendered ineffective.

Hmmm. Armor couldn't have been rendered ineffective against air power because it is ineffective against air power in the first place. If your enemy is only going to pound you from the air and not commit to the ground, it makes sense to keep your armor assets hidden. Not much they can do against planes 15,000 feet up in the air.

[ValerieUSA]

The LIES about the Kosovo began when Clintoon announced the reason for the initial attack - Genocide, ethnic cleansing. What a crock! It only makes sense that all of his yes men continued to lie about everything else from that first moment on....

[ValerieUSA]

My guess is Clark abused his men.

[AzJohn]

If Cohen, Shelton and Clark were all telling the same lie,what are the integrity issues Shelton has with Clark?

That's exactly the problem I'm having with all this. I'd always assumed that there must be some substance behind Shelton's characterization of Clark, but now I'm not so sure.

[Bedford Forrest]

The Blue Suiters in their little Electric Airplanes do not do interdiction, much less close air support. They have the best tankbuster [the Warthog] since the Stuka and they have systematically tried to send them all to the smelter at DM. Ask any Army infantry commander which he would rely on for close air support - cute little Blue Suiters in their cute little Electric Airplanes or Marines and squids in their grungy, clapped out F-18's flying off USS Boat at 0 dark thirty, tanking twice inbound. The Blue Suit bomber community [Buffs/B-1s/B-2s] is good and should be retained. But their tacair community has been a total farce and a gigantic money pit since the 60's. See, e.g., The Red Baron Report. The mission in which they fancy themselves expert has not existed since WWII and, since WWII, they have proven themselves to be unwilling and/or incapable of performing the missions assigned, namely, air to mud right here and right now. Air Farce tacair is an ongoing embarrassment and should be disbanded. As before, the Nav and the Marine Corps are the most effective [and cost effective] tactical/regional warriors of the 21st century. And in the event of a confrontation on the strategic level, once again the Navy's capabilities are more effective and reliable than the air force's, by orders of magnitude. [Does anyone think the Air Farce's missile silos scare the wacko mainland chicoms?] But for those selfsame chicom wackos, the USN boomers are another matter - believe it.

[GladesGuru]

As I have been given to understand, the TV stations were bombed because they were sued as passive detection units to locate stealth bombers. The program for so doing was a Chinese deal, and the embassy was targeted as a retaliation for their having made the program available.

As for Clark, I'm not voting for him. But give him one thing - he was a military man unfortunate to be serving under the Klintoons. A more anti-military administration is hard to find in American history.

[CyberAnt]

"mass graves never uncovered"

Yeah .. wasn't it Slick Willie's claim that there were over 100,000 murdered .. and it ended with the UN calculating the real loss was more like 2,100 ..?? I don't remember the exact amount .. but it was quite obvious Slick Willie HAD LIED THROUGH HIS TEETH about the number of graves, and the democrats NEVER, EVER CALLED HIM on it.

But .. of course .. Bush is the one who is lying about the war.