Democracy’s only saving grace is the illusions it offers. Take General Wesley Clark (retired) for example. He comes out of the gate strong and brings such military statesmen as Washington and Eisenhower to mind. In a time when Americans feel the most insecure then enter the warrior, stage left, in statesman costume. Let’s pull off the mask and see who’s really behind this mystery, shall we?

This is a man who commanded the soldiers who threw Posse Commitatus out the window at Waco in 1993. A man who quietly did what he was told to do by the Justice Department and burned alive men, women, and their children. Well, at least we’re speculating that he did. You see, the Honest General won’t come clean about the secret meetings that were held or what was discussed. We can’t even find out who the “senior military officials” from Fort Hood were. And believe me, if the New York Times can’t dig that up then you can bet that a Steal-This-Nation blogger can’t do it.

This is a man who bombed the hell out of an industrialized nation in violation of the Nuremberg laws on war crimes. A man who targeted Milosevic’s private residence to directly threaten his family and assassinate the head of a nation we weren’t even at war with.

This is a man whose political platform has been to intellectual debate what bologna has been to gourmet cooking. Even his website has been an Easter egg hunt in terms of finding some sort of defining statement. Mostly you get rebuttals to other more ballsy politician’s comments and a concentrated attack on Bush which really drives home the General’s main governing strategy of attacking the leadership of an enemy. What’s worse is he picks attacking statements that everyone can agree with. Bush is making it too easy for the General by simply being such a scoundrel and a liar.

So before we let in the next Caesar who’ll dismantle the Republic, let’s take a good long look at this man’s history and listen to his words to try and discern our future.