Paul Krassner's "Assholes of the Week #7"

(UPDATE: Paul Krassner says: Re: my Assholes of the Week #7 blog — I now add myself to one of them because I criticized General Wesley Clark for his silence about Pentagon plans to invade six other countries after Iraq, when in fact he did indeed speak out repeatedly.)

Realist publisher and Yippies founder Paul Krassner writes a weekly column, called "Assholes of the Week." This recent edition, no. 7, targets Senator Larry Craig, Mitt Romney, John Kerry, and Wesley Clark. Why Clark? Because he knew the war on Iraq was bogus in 2001 and didn't say anything about it until recently:

200705041830General Wesley Clark, for waiting until recently to reveal to Amy
Goodman on “Democracy Now” the following: “About ten days after 9/11, I
went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy
Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of
the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the
generals called me in. He said, ‘Sir, you’ve got to come in and talk
to me a second.’ I said, ‘Well, you’re too busy.’ He said, ‘No, no.’
He says, ‘We’ve made the decision we’re going to war with Iraq.’ This
was on or about the 20th of September. I said, ‘We’re going to war
with Iraq? Why?’ He said, ‘I don’t know.’ He said, ‘I guess they
don’t know what else to do.’ So I said, ‘Well, did they find some
information connecting Saddam to al Qaeda?’ He said, ‘No, no.’ He
says, ‘There’s nothing new that way. They just made the decision to
go to war with Iraq.’ He said, ‘I guess it’s like we don’t know what
to do about terrorists, but we’ve got a good military and we can take
down governments.’ And he said, ‘I guess if the only tool you have is
a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.’ So I came back to
see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in
Afghanistan. I said, ‘Are we still going to war with Iraq?’ And he
said, ‘Oh, it’s worse than that.’ He reached over on his desk. He
picked up a piece of paper. And he said, ‘I just got this from
upstairs’–meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office–“today.” And he
said, ‘This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven
countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon,
Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.’ I said, ‘Is it
classified?’ He said, ‘Yes, sir.’ I said, ‘Well, don’t show it to
me.’ And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, ‘You remember that?’
He said, ‘Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!’”

Link

Previously on Boing Boing:

Paul Krassner profiled

Paul Krassner on Supremes' "Bong hits 4 Jesus ruling"

Boing Boing interviews Paul Krassner

The Sopranos Meet The Hippies by Paul Krassner

Paul Krassner on RU Sirius Show

Paul Krassner on Secret Bullshit


Paul Krassner on the parts they left out of the Abbie Hoffman movie

Realist archive project