Clark: They picked the two-foot rattlesnake in a box

I spent the whole day today at events with General Clark--first the one I wrote a diary about yesterday (and I was at the blogger meeting with Arianna Huffington, which was a treat!!), and then later on in the evening, a fundraiser for WesPAC in Culver City.

I could spend all day writing about how fantastic the general is--his intellect, knowledge, message and genuine depth of feeling are all outstanding--but I wanted to share with you one brief story from the fundraiser that shows just how good the General is, and why he needs our support.

At the fundraiser later in the day, Clark was talking about national security, and how the Democrats need to recapture the mantle of national security from the Republicans.  I'll quote the General as best as I can:

Now, as important as it is how we deal with Iraq from here on out, and how we deal with Iran from here on out--as important as that is, if we want to be the party of national security, we need to talk not just about where we go from the bad situation we're in now--we need to talk about how we got there.

Bush talked about the axis of evil.  Whatever you want to call these countries, there were three of them: Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.  Of these, North Korea was the most dangerous.  They were developing nuclear weapons, and the administration didn't do anything about it.

The second most dangerous was Iran.  They were trying to develop nuclear weapons, had a fundamentalist government, and had the capacity to arrange terrorism.

And the least dangerous was Iraq.  Iraq was a two-foot rattlesnake in a box.  And guess what?  They went after the two-foot rattlesnake in the box.  And because of that, they were distracted from and ignored the bigger and more dangerous problems.  And now look: North Korea has several nuclear weapons that they've developed.  Iran is enriching uranium and has a hardcore fundamentalist in Ahmedinejad as the prime minister.  We're in this position because they took the least dangerous country, concentrated only there and ignored everything else.

We need to talk about this.  We need to talk about Osama bin Laden.  We need to talk about what would have happened if Democrats had been in charge.  We would have gone after Osama bin Laden.  We would not have spent $200 billion on invading Iraq.  We would be talking to Iran, and we would have talked to North Korea.  This administration has refused to talk to Iran.  They've outsourced our diplomacy to Europe.  And I beg the administration: please talk to Iran before it is too late.

We can't shy away from national security.  We can't concede it to the Republicans.  We have to point out that they have failed at every step of the way.  We can't be afraid of it.  So let's talk national security--because it should be a strength for us.  It's not a weakness.

That, my friends, is a platform we can use.  We can repeat this over and over and over again--because given these failures, who knows where they'll take us over the next several years.

We had a few other Kossacks there at this event as well--including Reality Bites Back, Alysheba, and Shockwave.  I will blog tomorrow--when I'm allowed by the system!--about the whole day in general, including the rally with the Congressional Candidates and Stephanie Miller, as well as the private bloggers meeting.

If you haven't heard the General speak, YOU NEED TO!!!!!  He is the real deal.  Check him out.  You'll like him.