"America Needs Urgent Action: No Nonsense Thoughts on America's Economic Crisis and National Security Dilemmas."

On September 17, 2008, Steve Clemons, Director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation chaired a session with retired four-star General and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe Wesley Clark for a discussion on the national security and economic crises facing America.

General Clark spoke on "America Needs Urgent Action: No Nonsense Thoughts on America's Economic Crisis and National Security Dilemmas."

For those who could not attend the session, the New America Foundation has provided video of the event.

General Wesley Clark on Morning Joe

August 29, 2008
transcript by Reg NYC

Mika Brzezinski: ..following developments on the Republican front, perhaps word on a Vice Presidential choice for John McCain's running mate-

Joe Scarborough: Yep.

Mika Brzezinski: -any minute now. We're working that story. We're hearing it's not Tim Pawlenty. But a lot to talk about in terms of what happened last night at Invesco Field. What a night it was.

Joe Scarborough: It really was. It was a historic night. I, I just, I wasn't alive in 1960, but I've got to believe you would have to go back to JFK's acceptance speech-

Mika Brzezinski: Yeah.

Joe Scarborough: -at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1960 to have a political event that could've come close to rivaling this. This really was - and I'm just going to put it a sports analogy to it -

General Wesley Clark on Fox's "American Election Headquarters"

August 17, 2008
transcript to follow

General Wesley Clark on CNN's Situation Room

August 15. 2008
Transcript by Reg NYC

Tom Foreman: The Soviet Union is long gone, but now there is a Cold War chill between the U.S. and Russia. With Russian tanks in Georgia and new threats over a U.S. missile shield in Poland things could suddenly get very hot, maybe. Joining me now Retired General Wesley Clark the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. Thanks so much for being here. I'm looking forward to our talk.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you, Tom.

Tom Foreman: Let me start off by asking you a basic question: For all of the concerns about Georgia, for all of the saber-rattling right now - you've been there and you've done that - how worried should we be about the relations between the U.S. and Russia right now?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think we should be very concerned and it's not just the U.S. and Russia. This is really about NATO. It's about the U.S. leadership role in Europe and how European countries respond to the United States. So, we need to be focusing on not just a U.S. - Russia bilateral relationship, but we need to be focusing on Transatlantic unity in- and using that Transatlantic unity to shape the behavior of Russia. That's one of the areas in which I think the administration has frankly not been as effective in the last seven years as it could've been, because there's been a lot of emphasis on U.S. unilateral relations with Russia and elsewhere and not enough emphasis on Transatlantic unity.

General Wesley Clark on Your World with Neil Cavuto

August 13. 2008
transcript by Reg NYC

Neil Cavuto: He is sending his Secretary of State Condolezza Rice to Georgia to show his support. Reaction now from someone many say could be the next Se-Sec-Secretary of State in an Obama administration, former Democratic Presidential candidate, former Supreme Commander of NATO, General Wesley Clark. General, what do you think of this?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think it's a very dangerous situation. I think Russia has clearly taken advantage and is pursuing strategic objectives. I don't think we've seen the end of this yet. I think what we need to do right away in addition to the humanitarian airlift that's going in is that we should get some observers in on the ground. They don't have to be Americans. It's better if they're from the European Union. Let President Sarkozy put in a few teams and tell us the ground truth of what's going on there so that we can use diplomatic leverage to force the Russians, the Russian military to abide by the directions given by its political leaders. What's being done right now is a, it's a game. The Russians played this game before. We saw it, I saw it personally. They played it against NATO in Kosova. They say at the political level, 'We'll stop,' but at the military level they don't stop. And without ground truth it's difficult to go back and confront the political leadership and say, 'You guys are lying to us! You tell them to stop and we mean it or else.' And so, the first step is to get some neutral observers in there.

Neil Cavuto: Alright, General. Just to remind people at home here, in the lower right portion of your screen, that is a scene in Michigan. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee is going to be talking to reporters about this. Of course, he has been very strong in his condemnation of the Russians r-really from the get-go when this first came out, which brings us to a point with you, General, as to whether Barack Obama was overly cautious. What do you make of that?