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Pious Perverts See other Pious Perverts Articles Title: Wes Clark kicks some O'Reilly butt (on Murtha) ill O'Reilly: Now for the top story tonight, another view of this. Joining us from Washington, Fox News military analyst General Wesley Clark. General, if you were on active duty over in Iraq and you heard Congressman Murtha, you know, 'don't stick up for the military Charlie', you know and, and really bomb throwing, agitating in my opinion, what would you think about that? General Wesley Clark: Well, I don't think I'd interpret it that way, not quite like you put it Bill. I think that what Congressman Murtha's doing is a legitimate function of the Legislative Branch. He's not part of the Executive Branch of government, and he's getting fed information from the inside. He obviously has had a lot of people who have talked to him about this. He's not making this up, and that's the way he sees it, and he wants to get the facts out. Look, when these things start to happen, and all of my sources in and around the Pentagon indicate that in fact, something like this instant did happen. It was murder. People were covered up. Now, I haven't seen the investigation, but people who have, are familiar with the facts are reporting these things. And when it happens like that, it's an indicator that you're on the edge of feasibility of your policy. It's an indicator that the, the stress on the units is such that standards of discipline and, and, and performance are, are breaking down at the margin. Bill O'Reilly: See, I disagree. I disagree. General Wesley Clark: And it's a real warning for us. Bill O'Reilly: I disagree. In Iwo Jima, in the Battle of the Bulge, Malmedy, all these things, and you're a military historian. You know these happened. It happened in every war. It's happened in every army, and you're right, it's a breakdown caused by stress, and a breakdown has to be dealt with by the military extremely quickly, effectively. General Wesley Clark: Yes. Bill O'Reilly: Murderers, if, if they're deemed guilty in a, in a military court of justice have to be punished. But to draw a wider implication, General, when 95%, and I think you'd agree with that figure, of American forces overseas under tremendous stress are performing heroically every day, to draw a wider implication at this juncture brutally unfair, both to our forces and to our country. What say you? General Wesley Clark: I say that, first of all, you'll have to show me and prove to me that there were ever any American soldiers in Belgium and Normandy or in Iwo Jima who murdered civilians. Secondly, I think you're too low when you say 95% of the forces are performing effectively. I'd say 99.5% of the forces are performing effectively, maybe higher. But when you have incidents like this, and you have chains of command under enormous stress, that is an indicator that things aren't going right. You've got to be sensitive to those indicators. You've got to fix the problem, otherwise it's going to get worse. Bill O'Reilly: Okay. Listen, nobody- General Wesley Clark: This is a long-term problem. Bill O'Reilly: Nobody is disagreeing with that. General Wesley Clark: Well then, that's my position. Bill O'Reilly: But I, in, in Mal-, in, in Malmedy, as you know, US forces captured SS forces who had their hands in the air, and they were unarmed, and they shot them down. You know that. That's on the record, been documented. In Iwo Jima, the same thing occurred. Japanese attempted to surrender, and they were burned in their caves. General Wesley Clark: Bill, that's a lot different than this. Bill O'Reilly: Okay. Listen- General Wesley Clark: These are no forces. Bill O'Reilly: What I'm trying to say to you is neither of those things, in the Battle of the Bulge or on Iwo Jima, reflected negatively on our military as far as its total performance was concerned. It was men under stress snapping. That's what this is. This isn't Abu Ghraib. Abu Ghraib was cowardice, in my opinion, off the chart, irresponsible cowardice to do that. Here, I think we have to- General Wesley Clark: I think we have, we have to see this investigations unfold, Bill, really, because- Bill O'Reilly: Right, and but Murtha isn't doing that, General. General Wesley Clark: There's a big difference between- Bill O'Reilly: But Murtha isn't doing that. General Wesley Clark: -being in a fire fight and some guy who suddenly, after he's been shooting at you, throws up his hand and says, 'Woop! Now you can't shoot me, because I've put down my weapon.' That's one thing. It's another thing, if it's true as reported, that they broke into homes and shot- Bill O'Reilly: Okay, but whoa, whoa. General Wesley Clark: -men, women and children Bill O'Reilly: I don't wanna, I don't wanna judi- Listen- General Wesley Clark: That, that's not, that's not the same thing. Bill O'Reilly: The Marines came to me. The Marines came to me and said, "Hey, Mr. O'Reilly, would you do us a favor and wait until we release our report." Because I had confronted Donald Rumsfeld on this very issue and used the My Lai Massacre as a starting point, and I said to the Marines, "Fair enough. Fair enough. I will let you put out your report before I start to advance a story." Murtha, a US Congressman goes on and indicts the entire military on a national program, and I'm mad about it. And Murtha doesn't have the stones to come on this program and back up what he said. General Wesley Clark: I think Murtha has every right to say what he's saying. He's not saying there's a conviction. Bill O'Reilly: In the way he said it? General Wesley Clark: He's saying that what he's heard. That's the legitimate function of the Legislative Branch of government, just like it could have been your function. Look, when another Commander in Chief was under investigation, the news media had no problems talking about it. Now, when our soldiers are under investigation, there've always been cases where people have pushed for that. This is a function of- this is the way government works, and I don't think it's- I, I- Bill O'Reilly: I think you have to be tempered in your remarks, General. General Wesley Clark: I think he is tempered- Bill O'Reilly: Ow- General Wesley Clark: -in the sense that, in the sense that he has expressed a great deal of respect for the men and women in uniform. John Murtha's a longtime supporter of the Armed Forces. Bill O'Reilly: "Don't stick up for the military Charlie?" "Don't stick up for the military Charlie?" General Wesley Clark: He- You know what he's saying, Bill. Bill O'Reilly: I know. I know what he's saying. He's- General Wesley Clark: Look this is about a specific incident of misconduct. Bill O'Reilly: No. This is about- General Wesley Clark: And there's no one in the military who's going to condone this conduct. Bill O'Reilly: I'm going to give you the last word, General, but this is about Murtha saying, 'I told you so. It's a bad war.' That's what it's about. General Wesley Clark: I- Bill O'Reilly: It's about him! Go ahead. I'll give you the last word. General Wesley Clark: Bill, I think- Here's my last word. I'm glad you've come around. Iraq was an unnecessary war. Here's the other point. It's, it's a failure, by the way the President defined the mission. The problem is how do we move gracefully from this position. What we've said is, we need to turn this over to the Iraqi government and- Bill O'Reilly: Alright. General Wesley Clark: -begin responsible redeployment, but we've got to protect the men and women in uniform and the integrity of our institutions. Bill O'Reilly: Okay. General Wesley Clark: John Murtha's worried about that and so am I. Bill O'Reilly: I don't- I, I think you're General Wesley Clark: And you should be too! Bill O'Reilly: You're, you're bending over backwards to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe I'm wrong. I'll admit. General Wesley Clark: I'm just telling you what, the way I see it. Bill O'Reilly: May- I know. Maybe I'm wrong about it. I'd like, I'd like to talk to the man face to face like we're talking to. General, thanks as always. General Wesley Clark: Well, let's talk some more, Bill.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 6.
#1. To: Mekons4 (#0)
Now this is a priceless exchange.......good ol' "We got all their plywood/cardboard tanks" Clark getting the better of the mouthy O-hole Reilly!!! A pleasant way to wind down the evening........
Clark may not be able to tell a T-72 from a cardboard box, but he sure as hell called this one right. The best "win" we can hope for is to break even.
You are correct. This proves he should never be around guns, guided missiles, or bombs.....just give the man a microphone. :)
#7. To: rowdee (#6)
I can think of a place where that microphone might fit, with a little bit of force, and we would get just as much sense from the fat nazi.
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