The Command Post - Op-Ed - Wesley Clark -- Opposing Viewpoints

September 27, 2003

Wesley Clark -- Opposing Viewpoints

I've seen Wesley Clark over the past week and haven't been all that impressed, but, who knows, if President Bush continues to lose his footing I may vote for a yellow dog -- or a blue dog these days. A couple of different viewpoints. First there's this via Best of the Web from Los Altos Online:

Retired General H. Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 9/11, shared his recollection of that day and his views of the war against terrorism with the Foothill College Celebrity Forum audience at Flint Center, Sept. 11 and 12.

His review of that historic event and his 38 years in the military kept the audience's rapt attention throughout. But it was his answer to a question from the audience at the end that shocked his listeners.

"What do you think of General Wesley Clark and would you support him as a presidential candidate," was the question put to him by moderator Dick Henning, assuming that all military men stood in support of each other. General Shelton took a drink of water and Henning said, "I noticed you took a drink on that one!"

"That question makes me wish it were vodka," said Shelton. "I've known Wes for a long time. I will tell you the reason he came out of Europe early had to do with integrity and character issues, things that are very near and dear to my heart. I'm not going to say whether I'm a Republican or a Democrat. I'll just say Wes won't get my vote."

Questioning a military man's integrity and character cuts to the bone. I'll wait and see.

For an opposing viewpoint there's this from DefenseWatch:

For the record, I never served with Clark . But after spending three hours interviewing the man for Maxim’s November issue, I’m impressed. He is insightful, he has his act together, he understands what makes national security tick – and he thinks on his feet somewhere around Mach 3. No big surprise, since he graduated first in his class from West Point , which puts him in the super-smart set with Robert E. Lee, Douglas MacArthur and Maxwell Taylor.

Clark was so brilliant, he was whisked off to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and didn’t get his boots into the Vietnam mud until well after his 1966 West Point class came close to achieving the academy record for the most Purple Hearts in any one war. When he finally got there, he took over a 1st Infantry Division rifle company and was badly wounded.

Lt. Gen. James Hollingsworth, one of our Army’s most distinguished war heroes, says: "Clark took a burst of AK fire, but didn’t stop fighting. He stayed on the field till his mission was accomplished and his boys were safe. He was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart. And he earned ‘em."

Clark's official campaign weblog is located here.

Posted By Robert Prather (Insults Unpunished) at September 27, 2003 03:54 AM | TrackBack

Comments

"No big surprise, since he graduated first in his class from West Point , which puts him in the super-smart set with Robert E. Lee, Douglas MacArthur and Maxwell Taylor."

'All this book leanin' is unbecoming for an officer. The yankees got all the smart ones, and look where it got them.'

Major General George Pickett

Posted by: Mark Buehner at September 27, 2003 03:05 PM

Let's see, first in class over West Point's history totals about 197 cadets. Most of these are not bell-ringers, unlike Lee, Maxwell Tayor, and the ultimately self-defeating MacArthur. So is it fairer to say that Clark is one of a much larger number of firsts-in-class whose achievements did NOT merit engraving them into the public consciousness?
As for me, I won't vote for Clark; heroism in 'Nam, etc, >30yrs ago, cannot offset his current double-talking, self-serving, abject posturings. He professes commitment to health care and to the environment, another big "So what?". Like vowing commitment to motherhood and apple pie. Clark is a little, wee man, made large by his uniform and stars, in which he is admittedly uncomfortable.

Posted by: TomTom at September 27, 2003 06:07 PM

Not so 'little, wee' to avoid a bullet in 'Nam. No wonder the gooks won, if their shooting was so sharp they could hit such a diminutive target. Every bullet fired in Vietnam missed the body of GWBush by thousands of miles. No wonder Clark is being mercilessly smeared.

Posted by: dirk strom at September 27, 2003 08:54 PM

dirk And were those bullets missing you by thousands of miles as well? Politics is nasty business, but this nonsense about Clark being 'mercilessly smeared' sounds a bit on the heavy-handed side. The guy is a liberal ex-military man, with a terrible track-record in bridge-blowing business. I can't even imagine how many bridges he'd burn in the domestic arena. So he's articulate - big deal. So am I. I'm a VN vet with plenty of combat experience - none of it very pretty. I'd hardly call my POV on Wesley Clark merciless, although his people skills apparently made him no friends. That says a lot, but it certainly doesn't make him Presidential material.

Posted by: Cap'n SPIN at September 28, 2003 01:23 PM

See earlier piece on Elections 2004 page for more details.

Posted by: Alan E Brain at September 28, 2003 09:47 PM

Alan E Thanks for the tips, but it really wasn't necessary on my part. The link might provide an eye-opener to dirk, as he seems to be enamored of the man.

Posted by: Cap'n SPIN at September 29, 2003 12:40 PM

Captain, still Spining ?? Guess you Think you
were a Captain in Nam. LOL. Naa, 5 star private.

Posted by: VF at September 30, 2003 12:57 AM

VF Nope. That stands for 'the Society for the Prevention of Illogical NeoCons'. Nope. I wasn't an officer, just a Hospital Corpsman. Would you like to comment on that, or is that more information than you need? BTW. How's your lob?

Posted by: Cap'n SPIN at September 30, 2003 08:34 AM

Those comments coming from General Shelton are so unbecoming of a man who was supposedly a General Officer. Seems to me he must have missed his ROTC class in History, traditions, and the qualities of a true military officer.

And further, to make those comments without something to back them up is patently dishonest. Perhaps he was one of those officers who General McCaffrey said were envious of General Clark because he was "too wired, too smart, too good looking" for the rest of the Army.

Posted by: Akira007 at December 2, 2003 04:09 PM