The Annenberg Political Fact Check center does a thorough take-down of RNC chair Ed Gillespie’s distortion of Wesley Clark’s comments on the Iraq war. Gillespie’s selective and deceptive excerpting of Clark’s pre-war statements have been picked up or seconded by Matt Drudge, Lou Dobbs and the Wall Street Journal — and have already become, though grossly misleading, a staple of the party line against Clark.
Clark’s comments came from testimony he gave before a House panel in September 2002. Another witness that day was a certain neocon hawk who clearly understood what the General actually said.
Annenberg says: “Don’t take our word for it: Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, a strong supporter of going to war, testified with Clark at the same hearing and said, ‘I think Gen. Clark doesnt want to see us use military force … The bottom line is he just doesnt want to take action. He wants to wait.'”
