January 13, 2004
Wesley and the War Criminal
Back in September I posted this entry to Wizblog at about the time that the centrist elements of the Democratic Party were beginning to seriously promote Wesley Clark as the anti-Dean candidate. The Robert Novak article linked there told the story of Clark's ill-advised photo-op with Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic, who is still at large in the Balkans and wanted by the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. In that photo, which Novak said had been widely circulated in Europe, Clark and Mladic struck a grinning pose wearing each other's military caps in a shot that, one hopes, Clark now regrets.
I wondered at the time why I hadn't seen the photo somewhere in the blogosphere, if it was in such wide circulation. Well, inside of 15 seconds I was looking at it, courtesy of Google Images, and I promptly linked to it to accompany the Novak piece. Now some four months later, with Clark's candidacy on the come, I found myself wondering again why this shot hadn't been getting wider play, at least among Bush partisans. I tried the other day to redo my Google Images search, and the photo is no longer available there. Interesting, no?
So for those of you who have not yet seen the shot of this regrettable moment by one of the favorites for the Democratic presidential nomination, I give you Clark and Mladic:
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Equally interesting is this excerpt from the Novak piece that describes the Mladic-Clark meeting, and the way the State Dept. had to keep Clark on a short leash, leading to the "Clark Rule":
U.S. diplomats warned Clark not to go to Bosnian Serb military headquarters to meet Mladic, considered by U.S. intelligence as the mastermind of the Srebrenica massacre of Muslim civilians (and still at large, sought by NATO peacekeeping forces). Besides the exchange of hats, they drank wine together, and Mladic gave Clark a bottle of brandy and a pistol.This was what U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke's team seeking peace in Yugoslavia tried to avoid by instituting the "Clark Rule": whenever the general is found talking alone to a Serb, Croat or Muslim, make sure an American civilian official rushes to his side. It produced some comic opera dashes by diplomats.
After Clark's meeting with Mladic, the State Department cabled embassies throughout Europe that there was no change in policy toward the Bosnian Serbs. The incident cost Victor Jackovich his job as U.S. ambassador to Bosnia, even though he protested Clark's course. The upshot came months later, when Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic, in bitter negotiations with Holbrooke, handed Clark back his Army hat.
After such behavior, Clark was never on the promotion list to full general until he appealed to Defense Secretary William Perry and Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He got his fourth star and became commander in chief of the Southern Command. His last post, as NATO supreme commander, found this infantry officer leading an air war against the Serbs over Kosovo. Clark argued with NATO colleagues by insisting on a ground troops option and complaining about the slowly graduated bombing campaign. He was pushed out abruptly by Defense Secretary William Cohen.
My question is: If Wesley Clark is ever Commander-in-Chief, who will enforce the "Clark Rule"?
UPDATE: Okay, I stand corrected by more than one person, and by my own checking. This whole issue was bandied about the blogosphere pretty well last Fall. I had it here, and I guess I didn't look too hard for it elsewhere. But the fact remains that Clark's growing candidacy makes discussion of his judgment in matters like the Mladic meeting a valid campaign issue.