General Wesley Clark: Wars Were Planned - Seven Countries In Five Years

General Wesley Clark:
Because I had been through the Pentagon right after 9/11. About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, "Sir, you've got to come in and talk to me a second." I said, "Well, you're too busy." He said, "No, no." He says, "We've made the decision we're going to war with Iraq." This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, "We're going to war with Iraq? Why?" He said, "I don't know." He said, "I guess they don't know what else to do." So I said, "Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?" He said, "No, no." He says, "There's nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq." He said, "I guess it's like we don't know what to do about terrorists, but we've got a good military and we can take down governments." And he said, "I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail."

So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, "Are we still going to war with Iraq?" And he said, "Oh, it's worse than that." He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, "I just got this down from upstairs" -- meaning the Secretary of Defense's office -- "today." And he said, "This is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran." I said, "Is it classified?" He said, "Yes, sir." I said, "Well, don't show it to me." And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, "You remember that?" He said, "Sir, I didn't show you that memo! I didn't show it to you!"

• Category

  News & Politics

[keyto808]

Iraq: Check

Afghanistan:Check

Syria: In Progress

Libya: Check

Somali: Incomplete

Sudan: Incomplete

Iran: Incomplete

[Jeannie Johnston]

American government. NOT the American people.

[1GTX1]

Serbian/Yugoslav delegation was shocked and offended that few hours before meeting ended NATO gave this demand, and also they did not even provide all the papers about how or why would they invade whole country.

[1GTX1]

I wonder how many people know that in 1999 Serbia made agrement with Clark and west about high level of autonomy fro Kosovo and NATO troops to enter Kosovo under UN. Than Clark and his NATO friends added another ultimatum, which was to have unrestricted military acces to whole Serbia. without UN, and also independence referendum in Kosovo in 3 years. Thats when serbian delegation left the meeting and mobilization started together with NATO bombing.

[ZZBlingy]

Why no Lebanon on your list?

[TheDavidDaoud]

Of course, since the time General Clark made this statement, Africa has indeed become a point of interest. AFRICOM was created in 2007, Libya has been destroyed, American forces are in east Africa, Mali has been invaded...because of natural resources of course, not necessarily Oil, but there is Uranium and other resources American corporations need. They will use the "terrorist" card, but we know what it's all about.

[JunglistGuy969]

If you watch Ron Paul get boo'd by an American crowd during a presidential candidate debate for suggesting America follows the Golden Rule in foreign policy, you can not say that ALL the American people are anti-war and anti-blowing up brown people. Don't be a fool.

[Solarfactor]

Opinion polls can be fudged.

[MK7896]

Sudan and Somalia are complete, as American backed South Sudan terrorists hold the majority of the oil fields in the country. It has become unnecessary to kill Omar Al Bashir and install a puppet government friendly to the US. The democratically elected socialist government of Somalia was overthrown in an American backed coup, but since then radical Islamists have been running the southern bit of the country. Somalia is a failed state. No resistance from them.

[beardlessphilosopher]

False.

[Saifullah Ben Walid]

The majority supports them.