Soldiering on for Wesley Clark

Wesley Clark reports for duty
By Nina J. Easton, Globe Staff April 2, 2006
Boston Globe

It could have been the 2004 Democratic National Convention. American flags. Gold eagles sprawled across banners advertising REAL SECURITY. Uniformed personnel on stage. But instead of Senator John F. Kerry ''reporting for duty" at the microphone, a probable '08 rival was front and center: General Wesley K. Clark.

Last week's unveiling of the Democratic Party's ''Plan to Protect America" turned out to be a showcase for Clark -- and his diplomatic skills in helping get badly divided Democrats behind a single message.

Clark, who ran against Kerry in '04, stepped to the microphone to condemn President Bush's ''incompetent" leadership, while Kerry's 6-foot-4-inch frame was crammed in alongside dozens of other lawmakers standing on risers in the back; even Hillary Rodham Clinton, widely thought to be the 2008 frontrunner, was barely visible in the last row.

That Clark was the one presidential prospect allowed to speak owes much to his role alongside the Senate Democratic leader, Harry M. Reid of Nevada, and the House Democratic leader, Nancy P. Pelosi of California, in crafting the national security plank in which the party pledges to ''eliminate" Osama Bin Laden, better equip the US military, and ensure that 2006 ''is a year of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty."

Iraq was the most difficult point of agreement for party lawmakers. Over the past months, Clark spent hours on the phone and in meetings with lawmakers ranging from centrist to leftists. Last fall, he urged Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania not to make his famed call for immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. And while Clark calls the Iraq war a ''strategic blunder," he continues to disagree with such lawmakers as Kerry who propose specific reductions of troops.

''No Democratic should put numbers" on an exit by American troops, he told the Briefing.

Asked about his '08 plans, Clark was coy, saying that this year's midterm vote is ''the moment of decision," an election that deserves all-out focus. But doesn't the retired general's visit to New Hampshire last month suggest some presidential water-testing?

''I went up there to get my batteries recharged. The people in New Hampshire really know the issues," Clark said, before pointedly mentioning that his two favorite sports teams are now the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots.

Just a quick note here. Published my first dKos diary, even tho I've been a registered member there since Jesus was a corporal. The subject is, "Flood the WH with letters; Tell Bush NO SURGE!" and it's a plea for Kossacks to respond to General Clark's letter campaign.

My dear friend Gordon Suber writes this insightful analysis of how the battlelines are being drawn over escalation in Iraq:

2007: It’s Clark versus McCain By Gordon Suber January 9, 2007

President George W. Bush will tell the American people why it is necessary to escalate the Iraq war, adding 20,000 American troops.

Writing in the Washington Post last Sunday, former presidential candidate (2000), Senator John McCain wrote that a small, short surge is a terrible idea. He advocates a larger number, for a longer period.

Writing in the Washington Post last Monday, former presidential candidate (2004) and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Wesley K. Clark set forth why he believes a surge in troops in Baghdad is a terrible idea. He advocates diplomacy.

None of us knows who will be battling for the presidency in 2008, but what I know now is that when it comes to finding a solution in Iraq in 2007, it's Clark versus McCain.

Well, ok, so don't forget Iraq completely. We all need to write our Congress-critters and demand they stop the escalation while there's still time. This war needs a strategy -- I doubt it's ever had one -- or we need to get the hell out. I prefer the first option. But twenty-two thousand more troops is not strategy, folks; it's tactics. Probably not even good tactics, but that's not the point. Congress needs to hold the President's feet to the fire, make him do his job, and stop him from telling his generals how to do theirs.

So by all means, write your representative and senators about this insane escalation. Just be sure to tell them, Don't forget about Iran! This administration, driven by neo-conservative ideology, has always wanted to take on Iran. Seems likely they have done it already if everything had gone the way they planned in Iraq.

The two voting-age members of this household wrote a letter to our congressman just yesterday.

Sorry, couldn't resist. I heard the "Fried Rice" moniker after the Senate smacked her around on Friday, and thought it right on the money... so I had a yen to use it.

But on to the main course.

In her Congressional testimony of January 11, 2007, Condoleezza Rice said:

“It is bad policy to speculate on what you'll do if the strategy you are working on doesn't work”

OMG, OMG. Did she make that up on the spot, or is that what passes as planning philosophy in the Bush White House? I know she didn't learn if from anyone at State.

Wes Clark was a guest on Hannity & Colmes the evening after Bush's State of the Union address. And soft pudgy too-good-to-enlist Sean Hannity presumes to lecture the four-star general and decorated combat veteran on military strategy?

Un-effin'-believable.

There's a video of the relevant piece at Crooks & Liars, or you can watch the whole interview at WesPAC's website. But here's what Hannity said:

...before it starts?

We are on the verge of war with Iran, and most of America doesn't even know it.

But make no mistake. George W. Bush wants to attack Iran.

The Sunday Times of London reports:

SOME of America’s most senior military commanders are prepared to resign if the White House orders a military strike against Iran, according to highly placed defence and intelligence sources.

Yesterday I wrote,

There is no doubt at all that many many people who could have made a difference [during the Vietnam era], chose not to, and lived to regret it.
I only hope the generals in the Pentagon today won't look back in ten or twenty years and feel the same way.

How ironic that just this morning on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, I hear David Margolick, the author of a new article in Vanity Fair about the generals who spoke out to call for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation in April 2006.

Particularly striking is a quote from Lieutenant General Greg Newbold, who was the Director for Operations on the Joint Staff in 2002. Describing a pre-invasion planning meeting where Rumsfeld had "summarily dismissed [a 500,000 troop estimate because s]urely 125,000 would suffice," Newbold now says,

"I should have had the gumption to confront him. The right thing to do was to confront, and I didn't. It's something I'll have to live with for a long time."

In an interview on Democracy Now! last week, General Clark spoke about closing the prison at Guantanamo and repealing the Military Commissions Act:

AMY GOODMAN: General Clark, do you think Guantanamo Bay should be closed?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Absolutely.

AMY GOODMAN: If Congress cut off funds for the prison there, it would be closed. Should they?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Well, I think the first thing Congress should do is repeal the Military Commissions Act. I’m very disturbed that a number of people who are looking at the highest office in the land have supported an act which advertently or inadvertently authorizes the admission into evidence of information gained through torture. That's not the America that I believe in. And the America that I believe in doesn't detain people indefinitely without charges. So I’d start with the Military Commissions Act.

Wes Clark is the last American general to win a war, one that was fought entirely within the framework of a true international alliance, and resulted in not a single allied combat casualty. He is also a veteran of counterinsurgency warfare in Vietnam, where he was wounded four times while commanding troops in battle, and awarded both the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his actions which saved the lives of his men under enemy attack.

Jon Soltz is a veteran and former captain, who completed a tour in Iraq, served with General Clark in Europe, and.returned from the Middle East to organize VoteVets.org, an organization dedicated to electing veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to Congress, and in helping candidates pledged to support the troops, both those deployed and the returning vets who are dependent upon military and VA medical care. VoteVets.org produced and aired a number of effective ads during the 2006 election cycle, probably the best known of which is the Body Armor ad which helped defeat Senators George Allen of Virginia, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, and Jim Talent of Missouri.

Together, they have recorded this video where they tell us about the military implications of an attack on Iran, both from a general's strategic perspective, and a captain's tactical experience.

I hope you'll take a few minutes to watch.
Then sign up to help Stop the Iran War. While there's still time.

Iraq War veteran Jon Soltz introduced General Wes Clark last night at a New York City forum sponsored by Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century. The two of them have worked closely together on many projects, the most recent being an effort to stop a war with Iran before it starts.

But what struck me most in the former Captain Soltz' introduction, as reported by Bouldin at his Daily Gotham blog, was the description of this event:

[When Jon] came back from Iraq, he was approached by a veteran of World War II, asking to shake his hand. This veteran of an earlier war had in turn once shaken the hand of a veteran of the Civil War; and that man long before had once, when very young, shaken the hand of a man who had taken part in the American Revolution. That's an unbroken chain of patriots who fought for everything this country holds dear, going back to the founding. It is precisely this tradition of honorable service that is today being dragged through the mud by the cabal of draft-dodgers in the White House.

"An unbroken chain of patriots... dragged through the mud by a cabal of draft-dodgers. "

That's exactly right.

Spooks. Intelligence collectors. Agents and handlers. Interceptors and radar operators. Long range reconnaissance. First in and last out of any war zone, potential or actual. Out in front of friendly defenses. Sometimes under cover, without uniforms and therefore, without Geneva Convention protection.

But even when they don't wear uniforms, they serve our country and protect our freedoms. They do it for little pay, often no recognition at all, and sometimes at risk of making the ultimate sacrifice in the performance of their duty.

The first American casualty in the War on Terror was CIA operative Mike Spann. And over forty years before, the first American to die in Vietnam was Army Specialist James T. Davis a signal intercept operator working under cover for the National Security Agency.

So no one, NO ONE, can claim to support "the troops" and not give a damn about the men and women who collect the intelligence that lets the rest of the troops do their jobs.

But that's exactly what I heard from Republicans on the House Oversight Committee last week as they questioned witnesses concerning the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson.

Ok, not really,

But last night (and a good seven hours after I posted "Spooks are troops too"), I was taken by surprise to hear Maher deliver a scathing denouncement of Bush, Cheney and Rove for what they have done to Valerie Plame Wilson, and of all the Republicans who don't seem to think it matters.

Maher specifically said, "CIA agents are troops," and described just some of the sacrifices and contributions Plame has made for this country.

He called Bush and Cheney traitors.

Update: Thanks to "SundayTalk" at YouTube for this clip, which is slightly better quality than the one first available from "joriet2" used earlier. Both are greatly appreciated.

In the March issue of Washington Monthly, General Wesley Clark offers a comprehensive prescription on how the Bush administration could avoid a war with Iran, assuming they really wanted to. Well, also assuming they had the diplomatic competence and credibility to follow the General's recommendations successfully. I don't consider either assumption a given.

But anyway, I don't really have anything to add to the original (duh), but I'd be remiss if I didn't post at least a link in this blog, since it's precisely the sort of information this blog was created for.

So follow the link and read the whole editorial. It's not easy reading, but it's worth your time. I'll give away the ending early (a habit from teaching Army CASCubans to keep their BLUF -- bottom line up front).
War is not inevitable. But...

Richard Power writes in his "Hard Rain Journal 3-30-07"

A Call to Conscience and Common Sense from Gen. Wes Clark, and an Update on the War OF, BY and FOR Terrorism By Richard Power

In 2002 and 2003, during the ramp up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, I wrote that although it was immoral (i.e., in violation of the principles of just war) and illegal (i.e., in violation of the UN Charter), it was something even worse, it was stupid. For the last two years, I have been writing that a preemptive, unilateral attack on Iran would be something worse than stupid, it would be insane.

Yes, the danger of a regional war in the Middle East, or even all out World War, is high. No one is doing more to prevent this potential catastrophe than retired Gen. Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander, who like Al Gore, has grasped that there is something more important than the business of politics as usual.

I invite you to continue reading Power's commentary at his "Words of Power" blog.

Now available for pre-order from amazon.com, A Time to Lead: For Duty, Honor and Country, by Wesley K. Clark, scheduled for release September 18, 2007.

An excerpt:

I scanned left and right, hoping they weren’t maneuvering around us. I could tell something was wrong with my foot – it wasn’t moving right, and now I could see the broken bone sticking out of my hand. I wasn’t in pain, but I really didn’t want to be right here, right now – not like this. For an awful instant I remembered my three month old son at home, my son whom I hadn’t even seen yet.

No, it wasn’t going to end like this, and I suppressed the thought.

Focus. Fight. Take charge.

“Get that gun going!” I shouted again, as I looked back under my left arm and saw the first troops come across the little footbridge. They were here. And they came running, those peace-symbol-lovin’, foul-cussin’, war-hatin’, draftee American soldiers came, right into the firefight. They came right into the smack of the bullets, and the whine of the ricochets. They were called forward, and they came! God, I loved them.

I remember those soldiers.

I was watching a forum on C-SPAN about presidential campaign politics. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former New York governor Mario Cuomo each spoke at Cooper Union, followed by a question and answer session led by Tim Russert of Meet the Press.

I learned I've been giving Newt Gingrich WAY too much credit.

When John McCain wants to find out how things are going over in Iraq, he flies over in a military aircraft on the taxpayers' dime, walks around the Green Zone with a maximum of US military protection, also on the taxpayers' dime, and talks to soldiers and marines hand-picked by the chain of command to answer his questions. One wonders what he expects to hear, and whether it isn't something like what he wants to hear, but I guess it's hard to fault him for not knowing any real GIs up close and personal.

Democratic congressman Patrick Murphy, on the other hand, can talk to the very real soldiers he served with in Iraq, some of whom are still there. According to an op/ed by Francis Clines in last Sunday's New York Times, one of those soldiers is Sergeant Juan Santiago of the 82nd Airborne. Hooah SGT Santiago.

A tag cloud displays the 50 words used most often by a single speaker in a speech or interview, but with the font size of each word varied according to the frequency of usage. That is, the larger the word's size, the more often it was used. Common words like "and," "of," "the," and "new" are omitted. Thus, the tag cloud gives a visual depiction of those things the speaker considers most important, at least at the time and/or within the context of the particular speech or interview.

Once more mega-kudos are in order to VoteVets, one of the few veterans organizations that puts the welfare of the troops ahead of partisan politics.

Jon Soltz -- Iraq War Veteran, Co-Founder and Chairman of VoteVets -- writes:

The first in the series of three ads features VoteVets.org Advisory Board Member, Major General (ret.) John Batiste, who was commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division from August 2002-June 2005. During this time frame, he conducted combat operations in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Batiste twice voted for President Bush and is a lifelong Republican. If you like this ad, then you're going to love what we have coming up in about a week, from Major General Paul Eaton. And, then the ad featuring General Clark after that. That's fitting, because it is General Clark who paved the way for other retired brass to speak out.

Now watch the video....

Don't the Republicans complain that if the American public could hear about the good stuff going on in Iraq, we would be more supportive of the president's war policy? That it is Democrats who have led the American people to believe the war is a lost cause by making sure the liberal media only tells us when bad stuff happens?

So how come the Bush administration is now prohibiting enlisted soldiers, "junior" officers (05 and below!), and even career DoD civilians -- in other words, anyone who's not a political appointee -- from testifying before Congress?

According to yesterday's Boston Globe,

Robert L. Wilkie , a former Bush administration national security official who left the White House to become assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs last year, has outlined a half-dozen guidelines that prohibit most officers below the rank of colonel from appearing in hearings, restricting testimony to high-ranking officers and civilians appointed by President Bush.

The guidelines, described in an April 19 memo to the staff director of the House Armed Services Committee, adds that all field-level officers and enlisted personnel must be "deemed appropriate" by the Department of Defense before they can participate in personal briefings for members of Congress or their staffs; in addition, according to the memo, the proceedings must not be recorded.

Too bad, C-SPAN viewers. No more first hand accounts from regular folks. From now on, you only get the sanitized version of events that the White House wants you to see.

Actually, it's worse than that.

I have come to the conclusion that Hillary Clinton is the presidential candidate most capable and most likely to withdraw our forces from Iraq in a manner that maximizes their safety and minimizes the long-term threat both to the region and to our national interests.

Apparently, these distinguished men and women have reached a similar conclusion.

Or listen to this conference call from the campaign, courtesy of Taylor Marsh's blog.

Flag Officers Endorsing Hillary Clinton for President and Commander-in-Chief, according to a press release dated March 1, 2008.

* General Wesley Clark
* General John M. Shalikashvili
* General Henry Hugh Shelton
* General Johnnie E. Wilson
* Admiral William Owens
* Lt. Gen. Joe Ballard
* Lt. Gen. Robert Gard
* Lt. Gen. Claudia J. Kennedy
* Lt. Gen. Donald L. Kerrick
* Lt. Gen. Frederick E. Vollrath
* Vice Admiral Joseph A. Sestak
* Major General Roger R. Blunt
* Major General George A. Buskirk, Jr.
* Major General Edward L. Correa, Jr.
* Major General Paul D. Eaton
* Major General Paul D. Monroe, Jr.
* Major General Antonio M. Taguba
* Rear Admiral Connie Mariano
* Rear Admiral Alan M. Steinman
* Rear Admiral David Stone
* Brigadier General Michael Dunn
* Brigadier General Belisario Flores
* Brigadier General Evelyn "Pat" Foote
* Brigadier General Keith H. Kerr
* Brigadier General Virgil A. Richard
* Brigadier General Preston Taylor
* Brigadier General John M. Watkins, Jr.
* Brigadier General Jack Yeager