US Iraq mission undercut by abuse: Democrat Clark

The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops has led to a loss of credibility that undermines an already troubled US military mission, retired General Wesley Clark said in the Democratic weekly radio address on Saturday.
"Apologies are not enough," the former Democratic presidential candidate said. "These criminal acts of abuse must be investigated fully and those responsible held accountable under law."
Clark, a former Nato commander who directed the 1999 bombing campaign in Kosovo, was an early critic of the war in Iraq. A senior member of the US team that helped broker the 1995 Dayton peace accords on Bosnia, Clark testified at the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who has faced calls for his resignation from some Democrats, offered an apology on Friday for the suffering that Iraqi prisoners faced at the hands of the American military at the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad. President George W. Bush apologised on Thursday.
Clark's remarks came in response to a radio address Bush delivered earlier on Saturday. Bush said the images of abuse and humiliation that have become public represented the "wrongdoing of a few."
Clark said corrective actions needed to be taken so that such abuse would not happen again.
"Amends must be made to Iraqis who suffered these humiliations through real and symbolic gestures, such as the dismantling of Abu Ghraib prison itself," he said.
"If the mission was endangered by the prospect of using heavy force against insurgents in Falluja and Najaf, it is no less endangered by the loss of credibility caused by our own misconduct," Clark said, referring to the heavy resistance US forces have faced in the two Iraqi cities.
"This is a mission in trouble."
Clark also pressed the Bush administration to move immediately in getting needed military equipment, such as armoured vests and vehicles, into Iraq.
He said the lack of protective gear may have cost 200 American lives. "This is inexcusable."
"The truth is President Bush made mistake after mistake as commander in chief, taking us into a war we didn't have to wage, alone and under false pretenses and is now managing it poorly," Clark said.
"To prevent Iraq from becoming a failed state that breeds new terrorists, America must change course," he said, calling for greater co-operation on Iraq with US allies.