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Subject:
Clark - 7th Dem to Attack McCain's War Service
Softwar
7/1/2008 4:29:55 PM
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Clark Marks the Seventh Democrat to Go After McCain's Wartime Service
Three points to note about Wes Clark's statement on Face the Nation about John McCain that "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president."
1) "Riding" in a fighter jet? Clark makes it sound like a carpool. (Another transcript suggests Clark said "getting" in a fighter plane. Either one is a strange, passive metaphor for piloting said fighter jet.) This wouldn't be the first time Wes Clark's familiarity and judgment in the use of aircraft during wartime was doubted however:
Clark's system of having himself, an army general, managing the air campaign [over Kosovo] broke dramatically from the American system in other previous conflicts. In the Bosnia campaign in 1995, then-SACEUR Army Gen. George Joulwan left the day-to-day responsibilities for the air campaign to Navy Adm. Leighton Smith in order to focus on diplomatic duties. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, on the eve of Desert Storm, put his faith in the air campaign strategy drawn up in the Air Force's then-Lt. Gen. Charles Horner's.
After weeks of seemingly fruitless bombing, the Clark strategy of focusing on Serbian forces in the field ("tank-plinking") was dropped and the campaign focused on targets in Belgrade important to Milosevic. The RAND report concluded, "The majority of the combat sorties that SACEUR [Clark] insisted be devoted to finding and attacking enemy forces in the [Kosovo Engagement Zone] arguably entailed a waste of munitions and other valuable assets."
2) After statements by a half-dozen high-profile Democrats and Obama surrogates, you cannot persuade me that there is not a concerted effort on the part of Obama Democrats to criticize McCain on his war record. George McGovern, Jay Rockefeller, Tom Harkin, Democratic congressional candidate Bill Gillespie, Ed Schultz, Tony McPeak, and now Clark. Way too many to be coincidence. We're seeing a lot more derisive comments about McCain's wartime service than we are about Obama's race.
3) From one of my favorite articles, a profile of Clark: "Interviews with a wide variety of current and retired military officials reveal that Clark was disliked by only three groups: Those whom ranked above him in the chain of command whom he ignored, his peers at the same rank whom he lied to, and those serving beneath him whom he micromanaged. Other than that, everyone liked him."
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