In a stunning but little-known speech delivered in 2007, Gen. Wesley K. Clark claimed that America underwent a ‘policy coup’ at the time of the 9/11 attacks. He had documented the progress of that coup in a book titled Winning modern wars, Iraq, terrorism and the American Empire that Gen. Clark had published in 2003. He was not just the usual retired general. He had been Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, from 1997 to 2000. In a 3 October 2007 video, he revealed that, right after 9/11, he was privy to information contained in a classified memo: ‘US plans to attack and remove governments in seven countries over five years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran’. At the Pentagon he was told: “We learned that we can use our military without being challenged …. We’ve got about five years to clean up the Soviet client regimes before another superpower comes along and challenges us.” “This was a policy coup…these people took control of policy in the United States. …”
In an interview on 24 September 2012 General Clark linked three topics: oil, war and activism. He explicitly laid out the central role of oil in American military strategy, and advocated for increased use of clean energy alternatives. He also said that the only way to change policy on energy and the military is for a mass public movement to stand up to the oil industry, the richest and most powerful in history. He said that young people have the most to gain, and will have to take the lead.
Here is a transcript of what Gen. Clark said:
“… So energy is about generating electricity. There you can move pretty quickly into solar and wind. Not only are the costs coming down through better engineering and better scientific development, but also battery technology is improving so you can store it and feed it into the power grid at the time you need it, not just when it’s generated.