SCARBOROUGH: General, how do we do that?

CLARK: Well, you‘ve got to let people like Muqtada have their say. And I think there should have been another way other than closing that newspaper down. I don‘t want to second guess people because I wasn‘t there, but you‘ve got to get these issues out into the open and a political dialogue and set up a political process in which they can be taken to the Iraqi people and resolved.

The thing about where we are right now is, the military—if we don‘t do the right thing militarily, we could lose. And we‘re not going to lose militarily. But you can‘t win this militarily, no matter how good the military is, because it‘s political.

SCARBOROUGH: General, let me ask you, do you agree with me, and I think most people, that leaving Iraq right now is simply not an option? It‘s not an option on June 30 of this year. It‘s not an option on June 30 of next year. Whether you agree with George Bush and the way—and I‘m not talking about you—I‘m talking about all of our viewers out there—whether they agree on how George Bush got us there or not, America is there, just like we‘re in Bosnia, just like we‘re in Kosovo. And once we‘re there, we can‘t retreat.

CLARK: That‘s right. We‘re not going to retreat and we‘re going to be strong there.

But, Joe, we‘re not going to be successful there unless we get beyond the military. I mean, if there‘s any single sin of this administration, it‘s that it‘s put too much of the burden of America‘s security on the great young men and women in our armed forces. And it hasn‘t followed through enough with the diplomats and the political strategy that‘s required to see that their bloodshed and sacrifice pays off.

And that‘s our problem in Iraq. We‘ve got great soldiers over there, but we‘ve never had a good strategy. And I hope the president will create one now.

SCARBOROUGH: Now, yesterday, one of John Kerry‘s most vocal supporters, Teddy Kennedy, had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: This president has now created the largest credibility gap since Richard Nixon. He‘s the problem, not the solution. Iraq is George Bush‘s Vietnam. Saying whatever it takes to prevail has become a standard operating procedure in the Bush White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCARBOROUGH: As one who served proudly in Vietnam for this country, do you agree that Iraq is going to be George W. Bush‘s Vietnam, or is that a bit of a political overstatement by Senator Kennedy?

Well, I think there‘s a difference in the amount of—in the cost to the American armed forces of fighting in Iraq and Vietnam. We‘ve lost over 600. We were losing over 300 a week at the height of the Vietnam War. And yet, there is this important similarity. In Vietnam, our military was asked to use its tactics on the battlefield to try to accomplish something that the strategists and the politicians and the diplomats couldn‘t quite envision.

SCARBOROUGH: Right.

CLARK: And that‘s the same thing that‘s happening in Iraq. For all the president says about wanting to create a democracy in Iraq, it‘s pretty clear the conditions for democracy aren‘t there.