Experts debate Iraq War

Clark, Eagleburger, Albright spar over America's Iraq policy during discussion at UMW.

Date published: 10/13/2005

By MICHAEL ZITZ

Gen. Wesley Clark looked very much like a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination during last night's Fredericksburg Forum.

Clark, an early front-runner in the 2004 Democratic race, ultimately lost the nomination to John Kerry. But at the University of Mary Washington event, he sounded like he was already back on the stump as he slammed George W. Bush, saying the president lacks a real foreign policy in Iraq and beyond--even in his second term.

"We still don't have a strategy," Clark said. "That's the truth about where America is in foreign affairs. There's no connection between the ends we seek," which he described as spreading American values, " and the actions we're taking in the Middle East and elsewhere."

Clark was joined onstage by the forum's other two participants, former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright and Lawrence Eagleburger. Albright began the trio's discussion in a conciliatory tone, but Clark would have none of it.

"We've got to very quickly take the military out of the lead role in every action we take around the world," Clark told the forum crowd at UMW's Dodd Auditorium. "Our military's overstretched and overcommitted right now.

"And there's only so much our country can accomplish by killing people," he said to the cheers of some in the audience.

"We've got to go beyond that," Clark said. "We've got to put in place a real strategy for fighting and winning the war on terror, and that starts with the ideology. We've got to change people's minds."

He said America must persuade young Arabs by appealing to their faith. "We have to convince them that the Quran doesn't call for the killing of innocent people."

Clark said America must stop alienating its friends and work more closely with its allies to share intelligence and stop terrorism. "Only as a last resort should we use military force," he said.

Republican Lawrence Eagleburger, who was secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush, forcefully replied, "I'm not going to sit here and listen to this President Bush being criticized for using military force in Iraq."

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Date published: 10/13/2005