Clark plan for Iraq replaces US-led military, civil forces

ORANGEBURG, S.C. -- Retired Army General Wesley K. Clark yesterday proposed the presidential campaign's first detailed plan for the Iraqi reconstruction, saying he would replace the US-led civil authority with an international overseer and replace the US-led military force with a NATO operation.

Clark cautioned, however, that the United States should not leave Iraq hastily, saying, "Early exit means retreat or defeat."

Though all of the Democratic candidates have used sharp language to criticize the Bush administration for its actions in Iraq, Clark offered a detailed alternative for managing postwar Iraq. His proposal, which he outlined in a speech at South Carolina State University, was designed to burnish his credentials as a foreign policy candidate and differentiate him from his Democratic rivals.

Clark, an advocate of international coalitions such as those that confronted the Serbian regime in Kosovo in 1999, was particularly critical of the Bush administration's go-it-alone stance in Iraq.

"It's foolish to act alone as a first resort, to determine alone the threat, to decide alone on a response, and then say to the world, `You're either with us or against us,' " Clark said.

Clark aides conceded the plan was as much a public relations gesture as a real-life blueprint, since the next administration won't take office until 2005.

"What he's doing in this speech, which is what campaigns are about, is `If I were president . . .' " said Jamie Rubin, Clark's chief foreign policy adviser. "It's trying to show the American people that he would be better positioned" than other candidates to address the Iraq situation.

Though Clark has spent the last several weeks fleshing out his domestic policy position, yesterday's speech was longer and more detailed than most of his prior addresses, and borrowed ideas from books Clark has written on the subject. Clark has long touted his foreign policy credentials in the presidential hunt, and yesterday suggested that his experience in the field would give him an advantage in office.

"In a Clark administration, the president will drive the policy," Clark said in his speech.

Clark also set himself apart from rivals who have said the reconstruction effort should be led by the United Nations. Instead, he proposed an institution patterned on NATO, which he has consistently used as a model for international collaboration. Clark worked during the Kosovo conflict as NATO's supreme allied commander, reporting to a council headed by a European civilian leader.

Clark's strategy, described in an article he wrote that appeared on the Opinion page of yesterday's Globe, calls for an end to the US-run civil authority. Clark says a civilian from an allied country should run the reconstruction, reporting to an international council. Clark also would create an interim Iraqi government, give it control over the country's oil revenues, and transfer authority to it on an ongoing basis.

NATO should run the military operation, with US forces in charge, Clark said. He also said he would recall the Iraqi Army to duty and make controlling Iraq's borders a top priority. Under his plan, international inspectors would take over the search for weapons of mass destruction, a move he said would free US intelligence agents to hunt down those who are attacking US troops.

Clark also proposed a Cabinet or sub-Cabinet agency that would be aimed at "solving the problems of poverty, disease, and ethnic conflict" around the world and called for a rewritten Atlantic Charter to define common threats.

Clark gave the speech in a state where he hopes to perform well in the Feb. 3 primary -- a day that is especially important to him because he has opted out of the Iowa caucuses two weeks earlier.

Joanna Weiss can be reached at j--weiss@globe.com.