April 9, 2003
Wesley Clark for President?
General Wesley Clark, who led NATO in Kosovo, wrote an essay in The Washington Monthly last year: "An Army of One?" by Gen. Wesley Clark.
He makes the very strong case that the most effective way to go about the "war on terrorism" is to do it in concert with NATO and the UN. He describes the factors that led to success in Kosovo and attributes that victory directly to the cooperation among the nations in NATO.
He wrote the article months before Bush and his cronies ignored the UN and unilaterally invaded Iraq. I wonder what he thinks of current events.
It has been suggested in other places that General Clark might be a viable Presidential candidate in 2004. Perhaps.
Perhaps.
Posted by Frank at April 9, 2003 12:35 PMWhen I was in the military (marines 8 years) I worked around and for some general staff officer's. Those are the guys like Gen Clark was at NATO.
So he can easily be counted as a very strong and intelligent military commander. He has plenty of experience there. As NATO is the 5th largest Military in the world. He was also commander during bosnia and kosivo.
The I hear everyone ask how is he on the other issues, economics, domestic issues, social reform, etc.
I would say any (1 or 2 star) general has the same roles and responsibilities as any govenor in the US and any 4 star general has the same challenges and problems as the president.
Then you have Generals like Clark who were in charge of NATO. A multinational nation, he had economic issues to deal with, are all member states paying the obligation payments to fund the forces. How to feed house and transport 60,000 troops on several differnet NATO operations. He had foreign policy issues, how to win bosnia without creating a larger ethinic war.
I contend that he has already served in a comparable position as any large corporate CEO or even the president.
So I think he is qualified, we just need to know his positions
Don't be fooled by the hype of Clark's candidacy, he is no American Hero, but rather another teflon general officer in search of his own recognition and reward. Most recently:
"Michael Moore has a bizarre post on the front page of his web site. Bizarre because it is another of Moore's rambling essays in support of Wesley Clark for president, but on the other hand if Moore is right then Clark is again lying (one way or the other) about that mysterious call he claims to have received after 9/11 telling him to blame the attacks on Iraq.
Clark originally implied that the call came from the White House, but backed off and later maintained it was from a Middle Eastern think tank in Canada. According to Clark, nobody from the White House ever asked him to blame 9/11 on Iraq. Clark's last version of events was that he simply learned later that people in the White House were supposedly also discussing spinning the attacks to blame Iraq.
More than 20 years in uniform under the watch of inviduals like Clark left a clear impression - he is a political animal, and not an honest American looking to faithfully serve his country. We can definitely do better.
Posted by: Retired at October 2, 2003 12:57 AM