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Iraq news wires here WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 — Three retired four-star American generals said today that attacking Iraq without a United Nations resolution supporting military action could limit aid from allies, energize recruiting for Al Qaeda and undermine America's long-term diplomatic and economic interests. "We must continue to persuade the other members of the Security Council of the correctness of our position, and we must not be too quick to take no for an answer," Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The officers' testimony came on...

Much has been done in six months to deal with the ongoing war in Afghanistan. We have restated that our aim is to eliminate the threat of Al Qaeda; built a new leadership team, including Special Representative Richard Holbrooke; reinforced our troop strength and adjusted our tactics; and have begun augmenting our force with synchronized diplomatic, political and economic efforts. But can we explain how all of this adds up to an effective strategy that will sustain American engagement in one of the world's least accessible regions? The American people are growing increasingly wary. In a new CNN/Opinion research poll,...

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 30, 2003 20:42:05 ET XXXXX HOLLYWOOD DEMS GATHER FOR 'HATE BUSH' MEETING AT HILTON **Exclusive** Top Hollywood activists and intellectuals are planning to gather this week in Beverly Hills for an event billed as 'Hate Bush,' the DRUDGE REPORT has learned! Laurie David [wife of SEINFELD creator Larry David] has sent out invites to the planned Tuesday evening meeting at the Hilton with the bold heading: 'Hate Bush 12/2 - Event' The message reads: "This is the most important meeting you can attend to prevent the advancement of the current extremist right wing agenda....

PITTSBURGH -- Target 11 has learned a Cranberry company that monitors peer-to-peer file-sharing networks discovered what it said is a potentially serious security breach involving President Barack Obama’s helicopter. Tiversa employees found engineering and communications information about Marine One at an IP address in Tehran, Iran. Bob Boback, CEO of Tiversa, said, ”We found a file containing entire blueprints and avionics package for Marine One,which is the president's helicopter." The company was able to trace the file back to its original source. "What appears to be a defense contractor in Bethesda, MD had a file sharing program on one of...

The last time the United States elected a Democrat as its president to govern with a majority-Democratic Congress, an immediate fracas arose over gays in the military, reinforcing a partisan story line that Democrats can't be trusted with the nation's security. Sixteen years later, some will certainly be watching how deftly President-elect Barack Obama salutes, or how House Speaker Nancy_Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid say the Pledge of Allegiance. These are symbols, of course, but the national security challenges the nation faces now are anything but symbolic: two wars, an ongoing terrorist menace, a growing list of unmet...

(IsraelNN.com) Vice President-elect Joe Biden has appointed former Clinton administration aide Ran Klain as his chief of staff, one week after President-elect Barack Obama tapped Clinton aide Rahm Emanuel to head the White House as chief of staff. Both appointees are Jewish, but while Emanuel is an observant Jew, Klain intermarried more than 20 years ago and his family observes Christmas. Klain, like Emanuel, promoted the Oslo Peace Accords, which eventually exploded into the Oslo War that has been raging since September, 2000. Emanuel choreographed the handshake between Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin and Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn...

(IsraelNN.com) According to a report on Middle East Newsline, President-elect Barack Obama has dispatched his "senior foreign policy adviser", Robert Malley to Egypt and Syria to outline Obama's policy on the Middle East. Malley reportedly relayed a promise from Obama that the United States would seek to enhance relations with Cairo and reconcile differences with Damascus. "The tenor of the messages was that the Obama administration would take into greater account Egyptian and Syrian interests," an aide to Malley was quoted as saying. The aide said Obama plans to launch a U.S. diplomatic initiative toward Syria. Malley met both Egyptian...

(IsraelNN.com) According to a report on Middle East Newsline, President-elect Barack Obama has dispatched his "senior foreign policy adviser", Robert Malley to Egypt and Syria to outline Obama's policy on the Middle East. Malley reportedly relayed a promise from Obama that the United States would seek to enhance relations with Cairo and reconcile differences with Damascus. "The tenor of the messages was that the Obama administration would take into greater account Egyptian and Syrian interests," an aide to Malley was quoted as saying. The aide said Obama plans to launch a U.S. diplomatic initiative toward Syria. Malley met both Egyptian...

Violence is down in Iraq because of actions taken by Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the U.S. military, but the Iraqi people “are not better off than they were before,” said retired Gen. Wesley Clark in an interview with CNSNews.com following his speech at the U.S.-Arab Policymakers Annual Conference on Thursday.

Obama To Wesley Clark; Your services aren’t needed. Audacity indeed. “General Wesley Clark is not attending the Democratic National Convention. I was told by General Clark’s personal office in Little Rock that he would not be attending. Clark was informed by Barack Obama’s people that there was no reason to come. General Clark has been given no role of any kind at the convention. Rubbing salt in the wound even more, the “theme” of Wednesday’s Democratic convention agenda is “Securing America.” Wesley Clark’s PAC also happens to be called SECURING AMERICA.”….

It is upsetting when current or former military personnel tear apart the troops in some way. Supporters of the military and those currently serving become incensed when individuals with military backgrounds like Congressman John Murtha, D-PA, Senator John Kerry, D-MA, and General Wesley Clark make anti-military remarks. General Wesley Clark is particularly disturbing. Unlike Murtha and Kerry, Clark was actively involved in directing troop movement with a very high military rank in the recent past. While Democratic supporters boast about his Army background, few mentioned his sour condescending nature toward the military. Clark stuck his foot in his mouth back...

The rumor that Wesley Clark was not welcomed at Obama's party in Denver is now confirmed by Wesley Clark's son, Wesley Clark Jr. Clark's son just posted a comment on dailykos. I can't post the link here, but here's the quotes. For a long time but we have a very active business that he needs to travel a lot for. He wasn't invited to speak at the convention. I'm sure somebody in his office called the campaign and asked if he was going to be invited to speak because he needs to book meetings for that week if he isn't...

General Wesley Clark speaking at Yearly Kos Convention in Chicago, 2007) General Wesley Clark is not attending the Democratic National Convention. I was told by General Clark's personal office in Little Rock that he would not be attending. Clark was informed by Barack Obama's people that there was no reason to come. General Clark has been given no role of any kind at the convention. Rubbing salt in the wound even more, the "theme" of Wednesday's Democratic convention agenda is "Securing America." Wesley Clark's PAC also happens to be called SECURING AMERICA. This is a mistake in my view. There...

Because the Obama camp has announced the theme for Wednesday night will be "securing America's future," and that the VP nominee will speak on that night, many have openly pondered about the VP being General Wesley Clark. How would Clark rate as the VP nominee? A few days ago, I posted a column on the Obama campaign's choice to thematically tie the Vice Presidential nominee to their Wednesday night agenda on national security and foreign affairs. Obama's people have titled Wednesday night as "Securing America's Future." Coincidentally, or perhaps not, this slogan also happens to be the mantra of WesPac,...

It's a slow news day, so why not throw a little humor out there? Here's Kerry on today's Meet The Press, interviewed by Tom Brokaw: MR. BROKAW: We're going to get to all those issues, but I also want to raise what a surrogate for Senator Obama had to say to my friend Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation." This is former General Wesley Clark talking about John McCain. He said, "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president." He described him as untested and untried. With all due respect,...

John McCormack catches Wes Clark in a couple of egregious errors on the surge today on Morning Joe. The lesser mistake is Clark’s insistence that the surge didn’t involve Anbar at all, when as McCormack notes the Marines sent two extra battalions to the hotbed of terrorist activity as part of the increased deployment. Worse, though, Clark tries to tell Scarborough that the surge had nothing to do with the Marines, and everything to do with the Saudis paying off the Sunni tribes: This isn’t exactly a lost history. Actually, 4,000 extra Marines went to Anbar. The extra Marine battalions...

It looks as if Wesley Clark is waving the white flag -- sort of -- in an attempt to avoid more discussion of his remarks on "Face the Nation" a week ago suggesting that John McCain's military experience didn't at all qualify him to be president. When the former general and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate was criticized for those remarks, he dug in and defended them. Then members of his own party begged him to get off center stage. "On a scale of 1 to 10, Clark's words were a 10 in terms of unhelpfulness," a prominent Democratic consultant told...

If you’re Barack Obama, and you’re looking for a retired general to make the implausible case that you’re ready to handle America’s national security concerns, you can’t afford to be choosy. So Obama is stuck with Wesley Clark – a man whose public utterances are usually bizarre and often hilarious. Clark stepped in it a week ago on CBS’s Face the Nation when he offered the following scintillating assessment of John McCain’s qualifications: “Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.” Oh, to be sitting with Obama as he...

Mr. Clark I am very confused by your recent comments suggesting that McCain being a prisoner of war didn't qualify as experience when it came to being commander in chief. So I was curious to see how long Senator McCain was a prisoner of war, and did you know that Senator McCain was a POW in VIETNAM longer than Obama has been a senator? that's right see McCain was held and tortured by our enemies from 1967 to 1973 Obama has only been in the senate since he took the oath of office in 2005, even if I give Obama...

Kosovo war commander and decorated Vietnam vet Wesley Clark was never shot down during war. Maybe that's why the retired general, ex-NATO war leader and former presidential candidate chose this aspect of John McCain's war record to carp about last Sunday, when he said, "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president." Yet McCain wasn't just shot down. He also was brutalized and tortured during five years of North Vietnamese captivity, a period during which McCain gallantly refused the early release his captors offered because he was an admiral's son....

Four days after his controversial “Face the Nation” appearance, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark is taking a break from the presidential campaign — but many Democratic insiders think he has already been crossed off the list of Barack Obama’s potential running mates. Sunday morning on CBS News, Clark argued that John McCain’s military experience — and his years as a prisoner of war — in no way qualified him to be president. Following his appearance, one prominent liberal blog, apparently seeing the genie as out of the bottle, launched into a considerably harsher attacks on McCain’s service headlined “Honestly, besides...

Let’s leave aside for a moment General Weasley Clark’s increasingly embarrassing attempts to defend his “Face the Nation” claim that “his hero” John McCain is actually unqualified for the presidency. When asked by a half-dozen interviewers to specify one area in which his candidate, Barack Obama, is actually MORE qualified than McCain, the Weasley One always returns to the same word – “judgment.” Obama’s qualified, in other words, because he displayed better judgment than McCain on the issue of the Iraq War. But there’s an obvious follow-up to this argument that General Clark hasn’t yet faced.. He suggests that “judgment”...

It was perverse -- not to mention tone-deaf and foolish -- for Barack Obama's supporters to pick the week of July Fourth to attack John McCain's military background. The cliche rings true: With political friends like these, Obama doesn't need enemies. First up was retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark, who told CBS' "Face the Nation" that "I don't think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president." That was tame compared with a vile posting by the nut-roots liberal Americablog.com headlined "Honestly, besides being tortured, what did McCain do to excel in...

WASHINGTON - Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, an advisor to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, says being shot down in an airplane doesn't qualify one to be president, a reference to Sen. John McCain's experience in Vietnam. He is absolutely correct. But it also doesn't make him any less qualified. In fact, it gives McCain a perspective on war and its horrors that his opponent, who quickly disavowed Clark's unapologetic comment, certainly doesn't have. And from that standpoint it puts the presumptive Republican nominee even further up on the Oval Office qualifications meter. It is doubtful many voters would...

Retired General Wesley Clark has gotten into hot water for his remarks expressing doubts about John McCain's fitness to lead the nation, despite McCain's Navy service and status as a former prisoner of war. It's a good Clark has 23/6's resident PR expert to defend him: STATEMENT FROM THE WORLD'S WORST PR GUY: Ladies and gentlemen of the press, thank you for meeting me at this Captain D's Seafood Kitchen as I elaborate on the comments of my client, Wesley Clark. First off, Gen. Clark's comments were taken wildly out of context. Yes, he said, "I don't think riding in...

Rove’s Third Term By PAUL KRUGMAN Al Gore never claimed that he invented the Internet. Howard Dean didn’t scream. Hillary Clinton didn’t say she was staying in the race because Barack Obama might be assassinated. And Wesley Clark didn’t impugn John McCain’s military service. Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary, titled his tell-all memoir “What Happened.” But a true account of modern American politics should be titled “What Didn’t Happen.” Again and again we’ve had media firestorms over supposedly revealing incidents that never actually took place. The latest fake scandal fit the usual pattern as an awkwardly phrased...

...Los Angeles Times writer Peter Nicholas claimed that Clark "didn't pay proper homage to McCain's greatest sacrifice: five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam". In the New York Times, Jeff Zeleny uncritically repeated comments by McCain supporters that the comments by Clark "impugned McCain's patriotism"... ... the response of the American print media was a veritable debutante cotillion compared with the dark alley mugging Clark would face on America's cable television news networks. Led by Fox News, but with CNN and MSNBC nipping enthusiastically at its baying heels, Clark was said to have been guilty of...

The list of people Sen. Barack Obama probably wishes were passive, rather than active, supporters of his bid for the presidency is growing. Already on the list are the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the Rev. Michael Pfleger. Obama may be ready to add retired Gen. Wesley Clark. Clark, not a stranger to foot-in-mouth disease, on Sunday took a shot at Sen. John McCain's fitness to be president. Stressing that he views McCain as a hero, Clark said of the Republican candidate for president, "Well, I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification for...

There has been a lot of talk about the need for change in this country. That is Senator Obama's mantra, of course. And all of the commentators say, "It is a change election." Well, I can understand why the call for change is so powerful considering the pitiful condition that our country is in. We simply have the most prosperous, freest and strongest country in the history of the world. So we can understand why liberal politicians and their supporters see the need for great change. On a more serious note, we have long recognized the role change plays in...

FLASHBACK: Wesley Clark, Then and Now. Plus, dodging missiles. [videos]

Outlook 1. From the standpoint of morale, enthusiasm, and confidence, the presidential election can be called no contest—Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. John McCain. The Republican candidate has not used the long period since he clinched the nomination to establish an effective campaign strategy. The level of depression among Republicans outside the McCain inner circle is worsening as Obama inches his way rightward, toward the middle of the road (at least rhetorically). 2. Actually, it still looks like a close race on a state-by-state basis. Despite the enthusiasm gap, this remains a winnable race for McCain in a terrible Republican...

As of today, Sen. Barack Obama is about halfway through his "patriotism theme week" message cycle. As of 2008, Sen. John McCain is about seven-ninths through his patriotism theme life cycle. I guess that is the difference between the new politics and the old patriotism. The Obama campaign launched its new politics patriotism week last Sunday, with retired Gen. Wes "Speichellecker" Clark smearing John McCain's war record -- even to the point of the former general saying that "riding" in a fighter plane and getting shot down are not qualifications for being president. Well, in fact, McCain wasn't riding, of...

WASHINGTON -- Being shot down may not qualify one to be president, as retired Gen. Wesley Clark infamously said recently. But what men do under fire might tell us about the character we may discover in a president. Clark's precise words, aimed at undermining John McCain's executive experience, were: "I don't think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president." In fairness, Clark also praised McCain's heroism, saying that he honored his service as a prisoner of war and even that "he was a hero to me." Predictably, Republicans were outraged and Democrats...

To start off, as many of you have already read, Obama threw Wes Clark, if not under the bus, at least into the bumper "As he's said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's service, and of course he rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark," said Obama campaign spokeman Bill Burton. Is this what the Hope 'n Change xPress will bring us throughout the campaign? Some Obama supporter comes out, says something nasty, gets the talking point out there for all to see, then Obama, who really needs to wash the blood and gore off his bus...

Day three of the Clark controversy, and things keep getting more and more interesting. Today, Barack Obama is apparently denying that his own speech yesterday in Ohio -- where we all assumed he was specifically repudiating Clark's comments -- was, in fact, aimed at Gen. Clark. Here is what Obama had to say today: "... I notice that I think in at least one publication it was reported that my comments yesterday about Senator McCain were in a response to General Clark. I think my staff will confirm that was in a draft of that speech that I had written...

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who caused a stir over the weekend when he dismissed John McCain’s military service as a qualification for the presidency, stood by his remarks on Tuesday but sought to soothe ruffled feathers after Barack Obama was forced to distance himself from his campaign surrogate. But after two days of angry responses and denunciations on both sides, Clark tried to clarify that while he respects McCain’s military service, he believes Obama has better judgment — without having served in the military — to be president, while Obama downplayed the impact of Clark’s comments.

Ollie North calls Wes Clark "petty and small"

Barack Obama just delivered a speech on patriotism in Independence, Mo., hometown of what was once America's most powerful haberdasher, and offered a mild rebuke to Wesley Clark, who took on John McCain's military record the other day in rather scorching terms. And just to make it clear, an Obama spokesman sent out this brief statement as Obama was speaking: "As he's said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's service, and, of course, he rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark." Obama's speech focused on his own sense of patriotism, quoting Mark Twain (it's good to quote...

Barack Obama denounces the ‘poison of patriotism’ after attack on McCain Barack Obama asked supporters not to devalue Mr McCain’s war service Tom Baldwin in Washington Barack Obama declared that exploiting patriotism “too often poisons our political debates” as he sought yesterday to answer doubts about his love for America and distance himself from supporters who have demeaned John McCain’s military service. In a speech in Independence, Missouri, the Democratic nominee said: “I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign. And I will not stand idly by when I hear others question mine.” His remarks came a...

An interesting trend has developed in the Obama campaign that I feel compelled to discuss... RUF reported yesterday on the blogger who questioned McCains military service and Wesley Clark's comments as well. In the past we've reported on Obama address not one, but TWO preachers from his former Church and their radical comments that led to numerous youtube hits. Additionally we've addressed the Obama campaign responding to members of his campaign staff refusing to seat women of a Muslim faith behind him during speeches... The Obama campaign continuously responds to all of these outrageous stories with the generic 'this is...

Smearing McCain   By Jacob LaksinFrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, July 01, 2008 DURING THE 2004 ELECTION, Democrats and their allies on the activist Left were adamant that a candidate’s military record was strictly off-limits to criticism. John Kerry was a war hero, and to suggest different was, as columnist David Ignatius averred, defamation. It turns out these partisans meant to exempt themselves from the rule. As an example, observe the nascent smear campaign against John McCain’s military service. This past weekend, retired general and declared Barack Obama backer Wesley Clark went on CBS’s Face the Nation, where he proceeded to...

DURING THE 2004 ELECTION, Democrats and their allies on the activist Left were adamant that a candidate’s military record was strictly off-limits to criticism. John Kerry was a war hero, and to suggest different was, as columnist David Ignatius averred, defamation. It turns out these partisans meant to exempt themselves from the rule. As an example, observe the nascent smear campaign against John McCain’s military service. This past weekend, retired general and declared Barack Obama backer Wesley Clark went on CBS’s Face the Nation, where he proceeded to dismiss the import of McCain’s military background in the current race. “I...

The Talk Shows Sunday, June 29th, 2008 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa.; former Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Bob Barr, Libertarian presidential candidate.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., Dave Freudenthal, D-Wyo., and Bill Ritter, D-Colo.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; retired Gen. Wesley Clark.THIS WEEK (ABC): Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill.; Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn.; Ralph Nader, independent presidential candidate.LATE EDITION (CNN) : U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Govs. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., and Bobby Jindal, R-La.; Terry McAuliffe, campaign...

Sen. Barack Obama gave a speech about patriotism yesterday entitled “The America We Love.” After listening to the rhetoric coming from his campaign, I assume the big question at Obama HQ was “Who you calling ‘we?’ ” Just hours before Obama’s pledge to “never question the patriotism of others in this campaign,” Gen. Wesley Clark was on CBS, demeaning Sen. John McCain’s military service. Claiming that McCain is “untested and untried” in foreign policy, Clark - the Grady Little of modern U.S. warfare - said, “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification...

Late last night I had a vision. No, it wasn't a vision like in one of franksolich's bizarre DREAMS. What happened is that I woke up with a start and a sudden realization that Wesley Clark is entirely a creature of the Clintons. In fact, the ONLY reason why he ran for presidential nomination in 2004 is that the Clintons wanted someone to take Howard Dean out. Clark flopped but Dean eventually took himself out with a lot of help from a White House letter released by the Clintons that showed Dean to be a complete hypocrite in opposing...

From Michael Moore's website, September 12th, 2003: Michael Moore to Wesley Clark: Run!A Citizen's Appeal to a General in a Time of War (at Home) Dear General Wesley Clark, I've been meaning to write to you for some time. Two days after the Oscars, when I felt very alone and somewhat frightened by the level of hatred toward me for daring to suggest that we were being led into war for "fictitious reasons," one person stuck his neck out and came to my defense on national television. And that person was you. http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2003-09-12 __________________________________________________________________ This next one is also on...

Wesley Clark isn’t worthy to wipe up the blood in John McCain’s cell. And yet this ambitious little Obama lackey has so whored himself to a shot at the vice presidency that he’s willing to mock another warrior’s service. And not just any warrior. But a genuine, bona fide American hero. You may not want to vote for John McCain, but you can’t disrespect him. At least not his military service. That’s beyond the pale. That’s not what honorable or decent people do. You don’t mock the shedding of a man’s blood. You don’t ridicule his torture at the hands...

The highest voltage third rail of this presidential campaign may not be race, sex, or age, but Senator John McCain's military service. McCain's campaign Sunday issued a pair of outraged statements after retired general and Barack Obama supporter Wesley Clark said he didn't think that McCain’s service as a fighter pilot and prisoner of war was relevant to running the country. Obama has consistently praised McCain's service, and called him "a genuine American hero." But farther to the left—and among some of McCain's conservative enemies as well—harsher attacks are circulating. Critics have accused McCain of war crimes for bombing targets...

For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.Wesley Clark - "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president." Even in the Marines, I noticed that the better looking Corporals who had the square chin, bold cheekbones and that All American GQ look seem to get promoted in double time speed to Sergeant. Perhaps former Marine General Anthony Zinni (now a radical lib/internationalist Democrat antiwar politico) was similarly promoted because of the cut of his jib....

This quote was from Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, an organization that gave $600,000 in cash and supplies in "humanitarian aide" to an insurgent-controlled Fallujah several years ago in our current war (the Marines won anyway, which is perhaps why Code Pink is leading the assault against the Marines in Berkeley). That is just one toxic outburst is a collection of indefensible comments from the radical fringe of the Democratic Party laughably called "progressives" in a series of personal attacks levied at Presidential candidate John McCain and chronicled by Ben Smith in a Politico article. Prominent progressive blogger John...