The media watchdog group FactCheck,
operated by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University
of Pennsylvania, has refuted the smears being made against
Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark regading his
position on the Iraq War. Efforts made by the Republican National
Committee and various media outlets have tried to portray Clark
as a pro-war candidate when his position
including testimony before Congress which is a matter of record
clearly show that he was anti-war. Their
analysis, which was released late Thursday, is based on an
examiantion of Clark's testimony and it was their conclusion that
the attacks portray a completely false picture of Clark's
position.
Gillespie's attack on Clark is a classic case of ripping
quotes out of their full context in order to create a false
picture.
Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie has been
saying retired Gen. Wesley Clark was really for war in Iraq --
but the record doesn't bear that out.
"Wesley Clark claims to have always been against the war in
Iraq. Y et, testimony he gave to the House Armed Services
Committee two weeks before Congress passed the Iraq Congressional
Resolution says otherwise," Gillespie writes on the RNC
website. Gillespie made similar remarks in a speech given Jan.
15, saying of Clark 's testimony "There was no stronger case
made" for going to war.
But Gillespie gives only selective excerpts of Clark 's testimony
to the House Armed Services Committee Sept. 26, 2002 . Actually,
Clark repeatedly urged patience and diplomacy, criticized the
Bush administration for undercutting "friends and
allies" and said "I think it's not time yet to use
force against Iraq ."
Don't take our word for it: Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, a
strong supporter of going to war, testified with Clark at the
same hearing and said, "I think Gen. Clark doesn't want to
see us use military force . . . . The bottom line is he just
doesn't want to take action. He wants to wait."
Blogger Josh Marshall on
the trail with Clark in New Hampshire today
Rob is the
founder and editor of the progressive news site robwire.com and is a
frequent contributor to rob.dailykos.com
