On Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee, there was a 2nd showdown between former 4-star NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Wesley Clark, and chief Bush neocon Richard Perle, over the War in Iraq. These two individuals had an infamous showdown in 2002 in the ramp up to war before this same House committee. In their first encounter, Clark’s analysis of the impending conflict was full of warning signs to avoid a miscalculated detour from the war on terror, and should instead allow diplomacy to run its course.

“War should be an absolute last resort option,” Clark often repeated during his 2002 testimony. Perle and the many Republican committee members sarcastically mocked Clark then, but they turned face and attacked Richard Perle this time around. Walter Jones Jr, the conservative Republican from North Carolina, set crosshairs on Richard Perle, asking a number of times for “someone to apologize for the misinformation given.” Jones even went so far as to go into great detail of attending various military funerals throughout his district, often amplifying his tone and glaring at the Pentagon war hawk. General Clark, in a noted exchange with chairman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), reminded the congressman that "I kept saying time was on our side," and "I could never quite satisfy you." It was quite clear during Wednesday’s testimony that the neoconservative Richard Perle had no intention in apologizing for his miscalculations, or apologizing on behalf of anyone within the administration. He was not humble, nor was he conciliatory. Am I surprised? Absolutely not, as Harry Reid said perfectly, it's that "arrogance of power" that Republicans hold.

Without a doubt there were very few individuals who stood up in those months after September 11th when it was clear that the ship was turning towards a conflict with Iraq. Men like Howard Dean, Bob Graham, and General Clark warned anyone who would listen that this was the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Now we are stuck in a never ending cycle of guerilla war, we’ve lost complete concentration and choked off vital resources toward the war on terror, our military is overextended and unable to quickly react to any new and impending national security issues, and the crippling debt we are incurring will serve to remind us for generations of the miscalculations that Richard Perle and the rest of his neoconservative brethren have cost the United Stats of America in vital economic and Foreign policy credibility. As General Wesley Clark stated at the end of his testimony on Wednesday, "I'll let the record speak for itself."