Wes doesn't correct Maddow in this interview when she says, "Back in May of '04, you said you thought it would be the patriotic thing for Donald Rumsfeld to resign." Actually, Clark called for Rumsfeld to be fired as early as September 2003.

The Rachel Maddow Show, 11/8/06

Rachel Maddow: What do you think about - and you hear this a lot from, from the Republicans who had not called for his, him, his resignation - people like John Boehner have said that he's done so much for the military in terms of transforming the military. What do you think about that?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, I don't actually think he's done much in the way of transforming the military. The truth is he hasn't made the hard decisions. The military's still much, very much on glide path from where we left it when I took off my uniform in 2000.

Rachel Maddow: Do you think that he has to, that, that, I mean, one of the things that it, he's credited for is the idea that the military needs to have a smaller ground force and more advanced-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, that's absurd!

Rachel Maddow: -more advanced weaponry. And that seems- I mean, has, has that been bought as an idea, or with Rumsfeld leaving is that idea also gone?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: How s- Let me tell you how stupid this was. This was the Republican idea in 1991-

Rachel Maddow: Hm.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -after the Gulf War. So, we went from twelve U.S Army divisions to ten. Those were the ten that were maintained throughout the Clinton administration, because we knew we couldn't do it with any fewer.

Rachel Maddow: Mm hm.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Rumsfeld comes in and says, "Oh, well since you've already got, since you've already gone from twelve to ten, let's see if we can take a couple more." He gave no credit to the transformation that actually was done by Bill Clinton-

-transcript and audio here