The Hindu : Democratic candidate changes tack on Iraq

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 21, 2003

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International

Democratic candidate changes tack on Iraq

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington Sept. 20. The Democratic Presidential candidate, Wesley Clark, has raised more than just political eyebrows by reversing an earlier opinion on Iraq that he would have voted for war, stating that the invasion was a "major blunder" and that he never would have supported.

Gen. Clark, the 10th entrant into the Democratic field, has argued that his army career taught him that use of force was a last resort and that this was not justified in the case of Iraq.

In fact, the former Commander of the NATO surprised his supporters in the first instance by saying that he would have voted for the war in Iraq "On balance, I probably would have voted for it", Gen Clark was quoted as saying.

But on the campaign swing in Iowa, which holds the critical Democratic primaries in January 2004, Gen. Clark sought to distance himself from his earlier view and emphasised his opposition to the war. "Let me make one thing clear: I would never have voted for this war", Gen Clark said in an interview with the Associated Press.

"I have got a very consistent record on this. There was no imminent threat. This was not a case of pre-emptive war. I would have voted for the right kind of leverage to get a diplomatic solution, an international solution to the challenge of Saddam Hussein", the four star General added.

Gen Clark's replacing the word "never" for "probably" has caught immediate attention within the Democratic camp especially among political strategists of other candidates who are anxious to play up the so-called grey areas of the latest entrant into an already crowded field.

One version is that there is a political price to pay in that Gen Clark entered the fray with a deep knowledge of strategic and military affairs and has ended up confused — or confusing — on an critical issue that will be meriting a lot of attention in November 2004.

Even within the Democratic camp there has been this tendency in the last several weeks to aggressively question the U.S. President, George W. Bush, on his Iraq policy and in the process taking the debate on Iraq to the larger national arena over and beyond the parameters of Democratic Presidential politics.

And conservative Republicans have started responding to some of the criticisms of the Democrats — so has the White House which is trying its best to keep the linkages of Iraq, the war on terror and September 11, 2001.

But senior Democrats like Senator Edward Kennedy are not willing to be rattled by accusations by members of the Grand Old Party of "new low" in the debate.

They are stressing that the leadership of the GOP is avoiding scrutiny of the President's policies by "attacking the patriotism" of those who question Mr. Bush.

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