▶ General Wesley Clark: Wars Were Planned - Seven Countries In Five Years - YouTube
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!"
