Apology to Wesley Clark

Thanks to Comments on my Assholes of the Week #7 blog, I now add myself to one of them because I criticized General Clark for his silence about Pentagon plans to invade six other countries after Iraq, when in fact he did indeed speak out repeatedly.

Comments

[Clarkin08]

I'm sure Wes would say that you did him no harm, you simply made a mistake, so no apology is due to him. But I'm not Wes, I'm just someone who thinks he could be the very best President our country has ever had. And from my perspective, it is right for you to apologize. Not to Wes. Not to me. But to any and all of your readers that you may have misled. I think that is what you are attempting to do here, and I applaud you for that.

[DonnaZ]

Whew! Thank you for accepting your error. Now if we can get the country to admit that the USA made a terrible mistake in 2000 and 2004, maybe you could write a headline announcing a successful bush impeachment.

General Clark put his credibility on the line early and often when he attempted to wake the nation. He deserves respect from all of us.

Thanks.

[zeph]

Get yourself OFF that list, right now!

Anyone who takes the time to post another blog, apologizing and admitting an error, is far far from being an asshole. You're an honorable and kind man.

Thank you for setting the record straight.

[MelFamy]

Had you made that mistake in a right-wing chatroom, your apology would have meant nothing! Those chaps would have called you a liar, because the difference between an honest mistake and an actual lie escapes them. Plus, to them, an apology is a sign of weakness. But you are with us, and we understand. I have read your work for 35 years, and cannot recall another time you got your facts wrong. Not a bad record.

[rektruax]

Apology to Paul Krassner

I used to work down the street from the Lampoon building and one afternoon I ran into P.J. O'rourke, literally (rather, he ran into me). I was so pissed because he made me drop a potted plant, shattering the terra-cotta. "Fuckin' Krassner" I said... "You're clumsy and your work in the Lampoon sucks!"...

I didn't realize it was O'rourke until later. I'm sorry Paul.

[RegNYC]

It takes a big man to apologize.
Respect.

[westcott]

Couple more from even before that, and this was to an audience of top military brass.

"I"ve heard a lot of people say they want to drain the swamp, and by that they usually mean where we"re going after Afghanistan. Is it Somalia, is it Iraq, is it Libya, is it Syria, is it Iran? How many? How soon? How often? But I think it"s more than that because that swamp is out there as a result of -- partly as a result of us. We're five percent of the world"s population. We"re taking 25 percent of the consumable resources. And that"s an unsustainable condition in the long term.

And so, part of winning modern war is winning the information campaign, and a big part of that is what we"re trying to do now, which is project a different image of America. But you can"t project an image that doesn"t reflect reality. And so, it means we"re going to have to tend to the reality that"s out there.

Even beyond the Islamic world the conditions of poverty, disease, despair and hopelessness in Africa and elsewhere will affect us. We can"t have the benefits of globalism without helping build the safety net that lets us have those benefits."
Wes Clark at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis. Nov. 14 2001

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flg7FMb7NJo

http://www.u-wes-a.com/vidclips/CSPAN_111401.WMV

[cheeto]

Thank you. You are 100% correct in your assessment that he repeatedly spoke out.

[westcott]

Accepted. Thanks. Please help spread the word. :)

[TexasKat]

Thank you, Paul.