There are all sorts of wild charges made against General Wesley Clark on the Internet. Just Google and you're there. Usually on a discussion board — this one happens to have been posted to Clark's own website, that's democracy for you — a seemingly innocent question is posed that manages to spread disinformation. A new one, to us: "Nobody goes from one star to four stars in six years." Is this true?

Here is our answer from a United States Army Lieutenant-Colonel (ret.):

Not unusual at all

by Jai Johnson-Pickett, A Wes Clark Democrat

Tommy Franks, for example, went from being a one star in Korea in late 1994 to commanding CENTCOM as a four-star in the summer of 2000. Ask your source if he would like to imply that Franks' promotion was politically motivated?

Of course, Eisenhower is an even more extreme example, as he went from colonel to five stars in some two and a half years. The point is, the very highest promotions do not run on any timetable. They are based on the capabilities of the officers and the needs of the service.

Funny, I saw something like this just the other day. It was over on a relatively new veterans message board I found called milnet.com. VERY right wing. What I saw claimed that the General had been a brigade commander (colonel, 0-6) at Waco. From that error, they derived that he went from 0-6 to 0-10 in about four years.

Of course, Wes Clark was a division commander (two-star, O-8) when the BATF assaulted Waco and Clark was nowhere near the place. I don't know if it was sheer ignorance (there's a lot of that on the hard right) or if this new lie about his promotions is one they will be passing around in various forms for the next ten years or so.

Wingnuts on the right have long tried to assert that General Clark got his rank from his association with Bill Clinton. All I need do is point out that he was already commanding the 1st Cavalry Division as a 2-star when Clinton was elected. For those that don't know, the 1st Cav is probably the premier armored division in the US Army. People selected to command it are on their way up.

No governor, as Clinton was at the time, would have had any say in who the Army promotes and assigns. It just doesn't work that way. But one would think that even the most partisan hack would admit that's true of a Democratic governor during a Republican administration.