# Why did Clinton fire Wesley Clark **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 8, 2004, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-clinton-fire-wesley-clark/223411 "2004-01-08T13:42:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-clinton-fire-wesley-clark/223411/21 "2004-01-10T00:07:59Z")
Could I have misspelled more words. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-clinton-fire-wesley-clark/223411/22 "2004-01-10T00:11:27Z")
Shelton is with the Edwards campaign, fwiw. Always consider the source and his possible motivations. ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-clinton-fire-wesley-clark/223411/23 "2004-01-10T01:48:19Z")
> [@](#): > > We will never know if the Maine hit a mine or the coal bins exploded. From the description of the hull, it could have been a mine. Actually, I thought that they had done a lot more research on the wreck, and had pretty solidly said that the coal bin explosion should be the lead theory. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-clinton-fire-wesley-clark/223411/24 "2004-01-10T02:21:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Magiver \* > \*\*The United States did not declare on Spain but took the embargo route. \*\* Cite? According to [this source](http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/chronology.html), the U.S. effectively declared war on Spain: > [@](#): > > 19 April (1898) > The U.S. Congress by vote of 311 to 6 in the House and 42 to 35 in the Senate adopted the Joint Resolution for war with Spain. > > 20 April > U.S. President William McKinley signed the Joint Resolution for war with Spain and the ultimatum was forwarded to Spain. > > Spanish Minister to the United States Luís Polo de Bernabé demanded his passport and, along with the personnel of the Legation, left Washington for Canada. > > 21 April > The Spanish Government considered the U.S. Joint Resolution of April 20 a declaration of war. U.S. Minister in Madrid General Steward L. Woodford received his passport before presenting the ultimatum by the United States. > > A state of war existed between Spain and the United States and all diplomatic relations were suspended. U.S. President William McKinley ordered a blockade of Cuba. I will agree, however, that the popular press probably had more to do with precipitating the war than the administration did. I guess that makes the Bush administration _even worse_ than McKinley’s! ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2004, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-clinton-fire-wesley-clark/223411/25 "2004-01-10T12:36:48Z")
Clinton’s lies were not limited to his sex life, although you have to admit the nation was so obsessed with sex that it overshadowed everything else he did. Such as destroying a pharma factory in Sudan, claiming it was making nerve gas, and bombing Serbia saying there was a genocide. I’m willing to give him as much benefit of the doubt as I give Bush on Iraq, but you’d think that some of the same people who rush to call Bush a horrible liar would hold Clinton to the same standards. If they did, Clinton would look very unfavorable in that light. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-clinton-fire-wesley-clark/223411/26 "2004-01-11T01:43:28Z")
**adaher** : But Bush’s lies and deception on policy started long before Iraq…See, for example, [here](http://www.bushlies.com/). (In fact, I don’t even know if what happened in terms of Iraq was a lie on his part or extreme self-deception about what he thought he knew.) There were those of us here on the SDMB who were arguing back in the beginning of the year (i.e., before the war began) that given Bush’s history of lying on policy so far, we had no reason to believe him on Iraq. In fact, I was accused at least once of believing the word of Saddam over Bush. (I actually believed neither of them since both had proven to have such little credibility and I felt we had to go on what evidence we could glean independently, like through the inspection process.) However, I must admit that even I didn’t expect that the gulf between what Bush said and what the reality has so far turned out to be in regards to WMD would be as wide as it is. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-clinton-fire-wesley-clark/223411/27 "2004-01-11T03:56:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Early Out \* > \*\*Cite? According to [this source](http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/chronology.html), the U.S. effectively declared war on Spain: > \*\* I heard recently that Spain declared war first. The U.S. back-dated its declaration so as to appear first. This [site](http://www.scalzi.com/millopsidedwar.htm) details the story. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-clinton-fire-wesley-clark/223411/28 "2004-01-11T11:44:20Z")
Do you think the same thinking went into opposing Clinton’s war in Kosovo, or do you think it was mainly just partisan ranting? I can understand people having misgivings about the Iraq war over mistrusting Bush, but most of what I see around here and other discussion boards is just as partisan as it was during the Kosovo war, when wannabe Tom Delays were calling Clinton a war criminal. At least the Chomskyites have been consistent. They’d throw both Bush and Clinton in a slammer and swallow the key.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2004, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-clinton-fire-wesley-clark/223411/29 "2004-01-11T12:04:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CaveMike \* > I heard recently that Spain declared war first. The U.S. back-dated its declaration so as to appear first. This [site](http://www.scalzi.com/millopsidedwar.htm) details the story. Another ludicrous conspiracy theory. It makes _no_ sense whatsoever. American popular opinion and politicians were spoiling for war for long time before it happened while Spain had everything to lose and nothing to win and had been trying to avoid it. To say Spain declared war on the USA is just ludicrous. The USA declared the war it wanted on Spain and the Maine was the excuse it needed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-clinton-fire-wesley-clark/223411.md?page=1)