Clark Assails Bush Iraq Taunts

NASHUA, N.H. — Criticizing President Bush for challenging enemy forces in Iraq to “bring ‘em on” in July, Democratic presidential candidate Wesley K. Clark said Thursday that only someone who had not witnessed combat “would ever say anything as fatuous” as the commander in chief’s remark.

“You don’t make policy by taunting the enemy,” said Clark, a retired Army general who was wounded during the Vietnam War. Bush was a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard during the conflict but never flew in battle. “Only someone who hasn’t seen war firsthand would ever say anything as fatuous as ‘bring ‘em on,’ ” Clark said in a stop at Daniel Webster College.

Offering himself as the best candidate to oppose Bush, Clark said Democrats needed a candidate who could balance force with diplomacy. He called the Bush administration “all bully and no pulpit.”