Clarke on Iraq and the WOT
Since the university where I teach is on spring break this week, I was able to watch some of the 9/11 commission public hearings. I saw Richard Clarke's testimony live in its entirety.
And I agree with John Stewart's assessment last night: "MIND-BLOWING." For a more articulate review that comes to the same conclusion, see Fred Kaplan's piece in Slate.
I strongly recommend the video on C-SPAN's Web-site. You simply cannot get an adequate impression of his testimony from second-hand sources.
[To find the video, search the video section for "Sept. 11 Commission Hearing - Day 2, Afternoon Session" (3/24/2004)]
The most powerful moment in Clarke's testimony occurred in his response to Secretary Lehman's five minute accusation (beginning at 1:20 in the video) that he had a credibility problem and appeared to be playing partisan politics. After a long and detailed response (beginning at 1:25), he got to the heart of his critique of the Bush Administration's waging of the War on Terror and why it may have taken some members of the commission by surprise:
Now, as to your accusation that there is a difference between what I said to this commission in 15 hours of testimony and what I am saying in my book and what media outlets are asking me to comment on, I think there's a very good reason for that. In the 15 hours of testimony, no one asked me what I thought about the president's invasion of Iraq. And the reason I am strident in my criticism of the president of the United States is because by invading Iraq -- something I was not asked about by the commission, it's something I chose write about a lot in the book -- by invading Iraq the president of the United States has greatly undermined the war on terrorism.
The last lines in bold Clarke stated clearly and forcefully, and when he uttered them, he stared Lehman straight in the eyes. There was then a pronouced silence. And he kept staring at Lehman silently, letting it all sink in, for what seemed (at least while I was watching live) for an eternity. Strictly speaking, the silent pause only lasts 10 seconds, but it seemed as though it lasted at least a minute when I first saw it. If you watch it on the CSPAN video, you'll think you've lost the connection or your Real Player is on pause.
I highly recommend you at least view that portion. It occurs from 1:27:15 to 1:28:12 in the C-SPAN video.
12:46:18 AM 
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