Could President Wesley Clark Have Liberated Iraq?

Sullivan has his reservations based on an essay by the ex-general. If Clark was president, Iraq probably would not have happened and Afghanistan probably not as well. Sullivan's take is that Clark sees everything though "the prism of NATO's Kosovo campaign".

Clark opines:

We've got a problem here: Because the Bush administration has thus far refused to engage our allies through NATO, we are fighting the war on terrorism with one hand tied behind our back.

I disagree. We engaged our allies to build consensus on Iraq but the Europeans dragged their feet, interfered with our efforts and provided aid and comfort to the enemy. Clark attempts to compare Iraq with Kosovo, but neglects to realize that although the atrocities that caused NATO to act in Kosovo also existed in Iraq, such parallels resulted in little desire by world bodies to move against Saddam.

What was the difference? Was it be that Saddam was further away, outside of the Continent? (isolationist card) Was it be that Saddam's military was bigger and capable of bloodying a liberating force? (sissy card) Was it be that the Iraqi's were not European? (race card)

I don't disagree with Clark that things would have been easier (and will be easier) if the French, et al, had our back, but they aren't there. We have to go it with the few allies we have because the consequences of inaction would result in a disaster down the road. The strategy is clear, we must keep the terror networks on the run because the best defense to the wipe out their offense. That we are freeing people from death makes the cause even more just.

Clark on the war on terrorism:

The Kosovo campaign suggests alternatives in waging and winning the struggle against terrorism: greater reliance on diplomacy and law and relatively less on the military alone.

It is agreed that the response needs to be multi-faceted, but the response cannot be held hostage to the whims of nations competing to regain former glory and politcal importance. We're talking lives here, not trade agreements.

I fear that with Clark as president, our foreign policy will be one of appeasement and as Sullivan describes, "abdication".