Clark Faults Bush over violence in Iraq [View All]

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Clark Faults Bush over violence in Iraq
Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/oct03/180661.asp
Clark faults Bush over violence in Iraq
It shows president doesn't have strategy, former general argues
By CRAIG GILBERT
[e-mail]
Last Updated: Oct. 28, 2003
Campaigning in Wisconsin for the first time, Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark said the string of car bombings that convulsed Baghdad on Monday underscored the Bush administration's lack of a strategy for Iraq and its failure to level with the public about the war and its costs.
Campaign Appearance
Photo/Erwin Gebhard
Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark greets supporters before a forum on health care Monday at Milwaukee Area Technical College.Quotable
He takes every piece of reality and puts a positive spin on it as though it's something good.
- Wesley Clark,
Democratic presidential candidate, referring to President Bush
Clark had just slipped into a van after a midday event in Milwaukee when a reporter handed him a fresh wire story about Baghdad's worst violence since the end of combat.
"Killed 40," he muttered, reading a headline fragment. "Oh, my God."
snip
"I just couldn't stand it," he told more than 100 people at Milwaukee Area Technical College. "We're squandering our nation's treasure in a mistaken war."
Speaking to reporters afterward, he derided President Bush for portraying the attacks as a desperate reaction by insurgents to American progress.
"His ability to twist the facts continues to amaze me when we're looking at national security problems," Clark said.
snip
Clark said: "Remember, Iraq was going to be a cakewalk. It was going to be liberation. It was going to be like the 'greatest generation' all over again. It was going to be like getting rid of Nazi Germany. It hasn't proved to be any of these things."
Of the Baghdad bombings, Clark said: "Maybe it's desperation. Maybe it isn't. What if it isn't? What if it's an expression of strength and resolve and conviction?"