And here it is :
Here is an excerpt:
Tom Foreman: Let me start off by asking you a basic question: For all of the concerns about Georgia, for all of the saber-rattling right now - you've been there and you've done that - how worried should we be about the relations between the U.S. and Russia right now?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think we should be very concerned and it's not just the U.S. and Russia. This is really about NATO. It's about the U.S. leadership role in Europe and how European countries respond to the United States. So, we need to be focusing on not just a U.S. - Russia bilateral relationship, but we need to be focusing on Transatlantic unity in- and using that Transatlantic unity to shape the behavior of Russia. That's one of the areas in which I think the administration has frankly not been as effective in the last seven years as it could've been, because there's been a lot of emphasis on U.S. unilateral relations with Russia and elsewhere and not enough emphasis on Transatlantic unity.
Tom Foreman: President Saakasvili in Georgia is blaming the West for making this breakout right now because, he said, the West entertained the idea of bringing Georgia into NATO, in which case NATO would've been bound to defend them against the Russians, but didn't bring them in. And that sort of poked Russia in the chest and made this happen. Do you buy his complaint that the West is to blame?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Not exactly. I think that, first of all, I've been, I've been very pleased to see NATO enlarge as it has over the last few years, but every, every step has to be carefully looked at. It has to have the, the backing of all NATO members, and there is some membership criteria that have to be met. One of those membership criteria incidentally is that all the territorial issues have to be resolved. they weren't resolved in the case of Georgia. The United States proposed Georgia for membership. The European allies asked some tough questions. It was decided that to give it a little bit more time. So, I don't think that the United States or NATO's responsible for this. But I do think that we could've seen this crisis coming. I think we should've worked for years to diffuse this and protect Georgia's claims on South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Russian encroachment.
Tom Foreman: H-how would you have done that?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I would've insisted a neutral peacekeeping force, not Russian peacekeepers in the area and a real process of addressing the, the, the alleged grievances between Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Georgia.
3 comments:
Clark for VP!
I saw this on The Washington Note blog by Steve Clemens:
Update: I have reconfirmed with General Wesley Clark's office that he has not been asked to play a role at the Democratic National Convention. His staff have told me that while his schedule remains tight, he would rearrange his schedule to help play any constructive role on any days of the convention if asked.
Obama camp has been extremely tight lipped on the Veep position. I think there is more to this story that Obama is not letting out. But, from the schedule that I posted, Obams is certainly keeping the Veep by surprise. And I hope you signed up on the Obama website for the camp to either text message you or send you an email of Obama's pick for Veep. I don't think that Obama will let the cat of the bag right now. I suspect he may do that within hours to when the VP pick is to speak. I would do that if I were Obama.
And I do agree. Clark would be a great VP pick. We shall see.
Let's see how well they can keep it a secret. That would indicate what else could and could not be leaked out later.
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