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.'"
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