There's no requirement to have any doctrine here.
I mean this is simply a longstanding right of the United States
and other nations to take the actions they deem necessary in their
self defense.
Every president has deployed forces as necessary
to take action. He's done so without multilateral support if necessary.
He's done so in advance of conflict if necessary. In my experience,
I was the commander of the European forces in NATO. When we took
action in Kosovo, we did not have United Nations approval to do
this and we did so in a way that was designed to preempt Serb ethnic
cleansing and regional destabilization there. There were some people
who didn't agree with that decision. The United Nations was not
able to agree to support it with a resolution.
There's no question that Saddam Hussein is a
threat... Yes, he has chemical and biological weapons. He's had
those for a long time. But the United States right now is on a very
much different defensive posture than we were before September 11th
of 2001... He is, as far as we know, actively pursuing nuclear capabilities,
though he doesn't have nuclear warheads yet. If he were to acquire
nuclear weapons, I think our friends in the region would face greatly
increased risks as would we.
And, I want to underscore that I think the United
States should not categorize this action as preemptive. Preemptive
and that doctrine has nothing whatsoever to do with this problem.
As Richard Perle [Ed note: !] so eloquently pointed out, this is
a problem that's longstanding. It's been a decade in the making.
It needs to be dealt with and the clock is ticking on this.
I think there's no question that, even though we
may not have the evidence as Richard [Perle] says, that there have
been such contacts [between Iraq and al Qaeda]. It' s normal. It's
natural. These are a lot of bad actors in the same region together.
They are going to bump into each other. They are going to exchange
information. They're going to feel each other out and see whether
there are opportunities to cooperate. That's inevitable in this
region, and I think it's clear that regardless of whether or not
such evidence is produced of these connections that Saddam Hussein
is a threat.
Our President has emphasized the urgency of eliminating
these weapons and weapons programs. I strongly support his efforts
to encourage the United Nations to act on this problem. And in taking
this to the United Nations, the President’s clear determination
to act if the United Nations can’t provides strong leverage undergirding
further diplomatic efforts.
STATEMENT OF GENERAL (RETIRED) WESLEY K. CLARK
U.S. ARMY - BEFORE THE HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE, UNITED
STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON SEPTEMBER 26, 2002. FULL
TRANSCRIPT
