Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Nervous Conservatives?
From the vicious attacks that have been unleashed on Gen. Clark by the various fair and balanced media outlets of the right-wing, one can safely surmise that he is definitely someone they are nervous about. After all, you dont see them go after Joe Lieberman with the same enthusiasm. The Drudge Report (via Robert Novak), for example, made a BIG deal of a photograph of Clark and Ratko Mladic. I had been meaning to make a post about that, but I found that Nitpicker had already done the needful.
Novak makes it sound as if Mladic had already been indicted by the time Clark met with him, but Mladic wasn't indicted until more than a year after their meeting. Even more telling is that the event for which Mladic was indicted -- the Srebrenica massacre -- didn't happen until eleven months after Clark met with him! So, at the time Clark met with the man, Mladic wasn't a war criminal and, as someone who worked in strategic plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Clark would have been remiss if he hadn't taken an opportunity to get to know an influential commander in an army our nation might have soon faced in battle.
Of course, Novak and Drudge forget to mention that similar photographs exist of Rumsfeld with the Reagan administration's favourite middle-east ruler at the time, a certain Saddam Hussein, a fact that Nitpicker notes while pointing to this Guardian article. For an even more detailed dissection of Bob Novak's allegation, read Public Nuisance's take on it.
Novak makes it sound as if Mladic had already been indicted by the time Clark met with him, but Mladic wasn't indicted until more than a year after their meeting. Even more telling is that the event for which Mladic was indicted -- the Srebrenica massacre -- didn't happen until eleven months after Clark met with him! So, at the time Clark met with the man, Mladic wasn't a war criminal and, as someone who worked in strategic plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Clark would have been remiss if he hadn't taken an opportunity to get to know an influential commander in an army our nation might have soon faced in battle.
Of course, Novak and Drudge forget to mention that similar photographs exist of Rumsfeld with the Reagan administration's favourite middle-east ruler at the time, a certain Saddam Hussein, a fact that Nitpicker notes while pointing to this Guardian article. For an even more detailed dissection of Bob Novak's allegation, read Public Nuisance's take on it.
