Posted
by David Ryan
August 28, 2003 at 9:59 a.m.
Run, Wesley, Run!
The New York Times is [reporting ][1] (free registration required) that Wesley Clark, former supreme allied commander and commander-in-chief of our European command, wants to get into the 2004 presidential race.Excellent, as far as I'm concerned. Superb, even.Have you heard him speak lately? Articulate, super smart, pointed in his critique of the current occupiers of the White House and their delusional mind set: watching and listening to him, I can't help getting psyched that a man of his caliber, abilities and experience wants to jump in the ring and push the Bush crowd out. This man is exceptional; understands better than most people I know the demands of our constitution; respects and appreciates the rule of law; and most importantly - unlike the crowd of draft dodging war mongerers currently occupying not only Iraq but our own White House - has actual, intense and extensive experience in the military. He's run the show in reality - unlike Messrs. Wolfowitz, Cheney, Bush, et alii. I seriously doubt that a President Clark would declare 'Mission Accomplished' - on an aircraft carrier named for a president his supporters [despise and seek to discredit][2] - hoping to get good images for his reelection, while more and more of America's sons and daughters are dying.Amen, I say. Sign me up. (click on Intelligence Report, and then scroll down to 'Reconstructing Lincoln'.) [1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/28/politics/28CLAR.html?hp [2]: http://www.splcenter.org/intelligenceproject/ip-index.html
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Jason (anonymous) says…
I hope he does run. Sounds like he could end up being far better than our current choices. Not that I've been really keeping up at this point, but nobody's really caught my eye...
Jason (anonymous) says…
Oh and that Lincoln article is crazy. There're some scary people in this world...
davidryan (David Ryan) says…
Jason -
I'd check Mr. Clark out.
And, yes: those NeoConfeds (the term I prefer to 'Necon') are seriously, dangerously whack.
One of them is in the current administration....
jfizell (Jason Fizell) says…
I've been keeping up on the rest, although I have to say I don't know enough about Clark.
However, in terms of simple political expediency, I'd have to say a Dean-Clark ticket would blow Shrub out of the water...
That said, my ideal is still Kucinich-anyone but Lieberman (or better yet Wellstone-anyone but Lieberman, alas).
Speaking of all this, anyone heard of the report on Drudgereport.com that Hilary is now more seriously thinking of throwing her hat in the ring?! Could be interesting...it would be nice to finally have a woman President....
Jason
quinno (Patrick Quinn) says…
I agree that, when compared to the current crop of Democratic candidates, Wesley Clark looks pretty good. Faint praise.
Clark is vastly more popular w/ the pundits than w/ his former colleagues in the military, who regard him, not w/out reason, as a publicity-seeking glory-hound who cannot turn away from an operating camera. His criticism of operations in Iraq has been curiously inchoate; he appears to agree w/ anyone opposed to the operation for any reason, and thus has told different television audiences at different times that the "problem" in Iraq is that we didn't send enough forces, have sent too many forces, that we should've gone in w/ the United Nations, that we shouldn't have gone in at all etc. In this he is only behaving like a politician, but it is distasteful in the extreme to see a man wrap himself in the uniform and piss all over his former colleagues for the sake of personal and political popularity. (I was equally dismayed when Oliver North did the same thing, and in truth I see little difference between the two men. If Clark fails in his bid for national office, he'll no doubt end up w/ a North-like television show.) And of course, if we are to seriously consider Clark as national leadership material, it is only fair to require him to offer something more on a policy level than a snappy haircut and, "I won the Balkan War," which of course he didn't.
Like all good Hero Generals, Clark wrote an autobiography. An incisive review can be found at:
http://slate.msn.com/id/200027
8/entry/1007988/
A representative review excerpt:
++++++++++++
"But at the book's core is an agenda of score-settling and ass-covering--and there's plenty of both to do. I don't really see the difference between "modern war," as Clark describes it, and a cynical kind of media savvy. ("For large democracies, the home front is the critical theater of war, and words and images are the key weapons.") Like his fellow airwave-hog Richard Holbrooke, the State Department's special negotiator in the run-up to the Kosovo bombing, Clark sought to wage the war by chatting up Tom Brokaw and Christiane Amanpour. He made end-runs around the U.S. Army chain of command and leaked information to other branches of government (State, in particular) and other governments (Britain's, in particular). This won Clark a reputation for flexibility with Holbrooke and Albright and the esteem of both NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana and British Prime Minister Tony Blair--so much esteem, in the latter case, that Clark was recently knighted.
But at the same time, his methods led him into a propagandistic press strategy that was transparent to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to the war. And they hurt him in U.S. military circles, where he was considered a showboating egotist and a devious political operator. Defense Secretary William Cohen told Clark, through Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Hugh Shelton, "Get your fucking face off the TV." Shelton didn't trust him. Nor did Gen. Eric Shinseki, subsequently Army chief. And once the Kosovo operation was finished, Cohen--with no objection from President Clinton--ended Clark's tour of duty early. In essence, sacked him. Last month, the European edition of the U.S. military magazine Stars and Stripes carried an article asking how Clark came to receive a Kosovo Campaign Medal since you had to have either 30 consecutive or 60 nonconsecutive days in the Balkans to get one--and Clark had spent the war at NATO headquarters in Belgium. The implication was that he'd connived for it. And you'll notice the coolness with which this book has been received in top U.S. military circles."
+++++++++++++++
It's quite telling that Clinton had no objections to flushing the man, which ought to give fans pause. And for the Chairman of Joint Chiefs to tell a theater commander, "Get your fucking face off the TV," well, gosh....
I'm trying to see a clear, unambiguous difference between Clark's posturing and that of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who like Clark assumes that a winning smile and a few snide remarks about the incumbent will be enough to vault him to victory. I just don't get it. They're both political lightweights who don't even pretend to have a reasoned proposal for addressing the country's ills beyond, "Vote for me! I look good on TV!"
W/ a little luck, Clark will soon hire his own pundits and consultants, who will explain to him what he thinks about the great issues of the day, and then we will have a better picture of the Candidate General. But yr quite right: compared to Kerry, Dean et al, Clark looks like Thomas Jefferson.
I also find it interesting that we are now comparing President Bush and the Republicans to Nazis *as a party*, which suggests that we should liken Al Gore, Howard Dean and the Democrats to Josef Stalin. How this kind of rhetoric is going to move the country forward escapes me. That Attorney General Ashcroft is an unreconstructed thug is beyond dispute, but this only makes him a worthy peer to Gore, who as vice president flouted campaign finance laws in his China dealings as egregiously as Ashcroft is spitting on the Bill of Rights. The tired suggestion that one party is the Party of Virtue and the other the Party of Sin just doesn't cut it anymore.
But what the hey... When like the Democrats yr cursed w/ Al Sharpton, throwing a blow-dried former general on TV sure can't hurt. I anticipate a rousing campaign, whether the good general joins the fray or no. Pax.
lazz (anonymous) says…
Al Sharpton could kick Wesley Clark's ass any day.
Just think of it, Al as president and Arnold as governor of California.
Is this a great country, or what?
sheesh.
Kinda makes one sentimental for Gov. Jesse Ventura ...
dex (anonymous) says…
amen quinno, for trying (probably in vain, i might cynically add) to stem the rabid polarization that often passes for political "discussion" around here.
MstrOfAllISrvey (anonymous) says…
1) Kucinich. Yeah, right. I understand that people sometimes feel the need to run for the presidency, not out any expectation of winning, but instead as a soapbox to air their political philosophy. As long as he doesn't embarass the party, have a blast.
2) Clark. Running for Vice-President. However, it should be noted that the man isn't stupid. Rhodes scholar, etc. And why is it that no one ever busts Colin Powell for being just as much a media whore and behind-the-scenes manipulator as others? Don't get me wrong, I like Powell. And that's the point. Sometimes commanders have to work like politicians to get their governments to act appropriately. Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton and McArthur (although he took it to an all new level) all worked with the media and other branches of government. Generating public pressure is one of the few tools an officer has to persuade a civilian-controlled military to act. The proper way to evaluate the strategy is its ends, not its means.
-B