3 posts tagged “iran”
I was fortunate enough to see Wes Clark interviewed by Amy Goodman at the 92nd St Y in NYC last night. He was, as usual, wonderful, knowledgeable and brutally honest.
He and his lovely wife Gert met with a small group of supporters before the event. Wes spoke to us and answered questions for about half an hour. He told us how much we all meant to him. He took questions, of course, about a potential ’08 run but said nothing committal, only that he’s trying to turn the conversation to a discussion of the issues and doesn’t know if it can be done. Running for President was too much about celebrity, he said.
Someone asked about his trip to Saudi Arabia and he said that there’s a lot of anger toward Americans, not just the Bush Administration as before but now toward Americans. He spoke of how he’d talked to people before the ‘04 election who said they did not hold all Americans accountable for what Bush was doing because we didn’t all elect him but things would be different if he put him back in office...and he won "an uncontested election", I think that’s the way he put it. Someone suggested he hadn’t won and Wes didn’t discount that but noted that, for whatever their reasons, the Democratic leadership chose not to contest the election at the time when it would have mattered....It was an interesting little exchange. Take from it what you will.
Read more at A Wes Clark Democrat
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It’s been over 40 years since LBJ refused to choose between Guns and Butter, and we all came out losers because of it. Had he chosen only Guns, fewer Americans would have paid an economic price, and had he settled on Butter alone, its likely America would not have sacrificed at all. But LBJ couldn’t make that choice; instead he told America you can have this war and eat butter too. Thousands of Americans kept dying in Viet Nam and ultimately butter, along with all consumer goods and services, soared in price in an inflationary spiral until many Americans could barely afford to put margarine on their tables.
We are not exactly fighting a second Viet Nam War now, though Iraq is the closest thing to it for America since Saigon fell. Our military deployment in Iraq remains a fraction of the half a million Army of predominantly draftees that the United States once shipped off to war in South East Asia. Without a draft, most American families don’t have to worry themselves sick over whether their sons, and potentially now their daughters, will be shipped off to fight in a war they want no part of. With less troops fighting in Iraq than once fought in Viet Nam, it means there are fewer overall casualties also, which means less funerals for those of us at home to attend for the children of friends, neighbors and co-workers fallen in combat, far less than the bloodier days of the Viet Nam era. So much pain averted, for most of us.
Read more at A Left Turn FOR CLARK
While his supporters sit on the edge of their seats pleading for an announcement of a second presidential primary run by General Clark, he will not be moved. He has said several times, when pressed, that partisan politics will have to take second chair to the more immediate issue of impending war with Iran. "Once a person becomes a candidate, then everything they say becomes viewed through a political lens. I don't want this viewed through a political lens. This should be viewed as a policy issue."
The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies of Tufts University held a conference last week, "The War on Terrorism: Where Do We Stand?" where Seymour Hersh gave closing and chilling remarks.
Calling President Bush a "total radical," Hersh worried, "There's nothing more dangerous than a radical who doesn't have information, doesn't learn from information and doesn't learn from the past.... The fact of the matter is we have a government that will do what it wants to do for the next two years. The worst is yet to come. It's sort of like we're essentially powerless [and] just play it out."
I was reminded of General Clark's challenge in one of the 2004 primary debates to the candidates who had jobs in Congress: "Let's see you take apart that doctrine of preemption now. I don't think we can wait until November 2004 to change the administration on this threat. We're marching into another military campaign in the Middle East. We need to stop it."
It's three years later and Clark's early warning is the here and now.
Read more at A Wes Clark Democrat
