If Gore Were President, Gen. Clark Would Be A Republican

I don’t know (or, if truth be told, care) enough about Gen. Clark’s views of peace and war to know why he was so sure our national security required us to do much more in Kosovo than we did and much less in Iraq, why he thought Milosovic was such an intolerable evil and Saddam an eminently tolerable one. Still, I found this article describing his charges of politically inspired meddling from the Clinton White House fascinating.

I have no idea whether the political meddling charge is true — various former Clinton officials denied it — but it would no more suprising if it were than if the charges merely reflect Gen. Clark’s view of himself as a giant surrounded by midgets. What was striking about the article is the irresistible (at least to me) impression it left that if President Gore had continued Clintonian policies in and toward Iraq, Gen. Clark would now be running for president in Republican primaries as a right wing hawk accusing the administration of shameless appeasement.

ADDENDUM

In a similar vein (well, at least it’s still about the military), given the recent criticism of Pres. Bush’s service in the National Guard, Bob Dole has just reminded us how John Kerry (the one who’s the proud Vietnam veteran, not the one who tossed his, or someone’s, medals) responded to Sen. Bob Kerrey’s criticism of Bill Clinton’s avoidance of military service during the 1992 primaries. Said the 1992 Kerry: “We do not need to divide America over who served and how.”

Sen. Dole also wryly pointed out that “Sen. Kerry is a war hero, but if campaigns were about war records, I would have won easily in 1996.”

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