Wes Clark can he or should he be the VP

General Wesley Clark as VP for eithe Clinton or Obama

Clark seen eyeing running mate position
By Ralph Z. Hallow
February 20, 2008




Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark has been attending Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign events and making speeches on behalf of the Democratic presidential candidate. (Getty Images)

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Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark is signing fundraising letters for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and making campaign speeches on her behalf, raising speculation he might be auditioning as a vice-presidential nominee.



Both Republicans and Democrats said the four-star general could do for Mrs. Clinton — or even for Sen. Barack Obama — what Vice President Dick Cheney, a former secretary of defense in the first Bush White House, did for George W. Bush in 2000.



"Wes Clark is one of the few generals who understands military leadership as well as political leadership," said former Rep. Butler Derrick, South Carolina Democrat. "He would help reassure voters for both [Sen. Barack Obama] and Clinton that their administrations would be firm and reliable on national defense."



Mr. Clark could be particularly effective to counter Sen. John McCain, the probable Republican standard-bearer, whose credentials as Vietnam War hero and Senate tenure dealing with military matters are regularly praised.



Donald J. Devine, a Republican Party consultant and former Reagan White House official, said Mr. Clark is a central casting version of a national candidate — a sleek and immaculately coiffured general who commanded Operation Allied Force in the Kosovo war when he was NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe.



Mr. Derrick said Mr. Clark "would lend credibility to Clinton's position on the war, as he was against it from the beginning, which is almost unheard of for a retired general."



Mr. Clark might be even more of an asset to the Illinois senator, who has little foreign policy or military experience.



"Citizens have doubts about Obama's depth of knowledge in this area," said Mr. Derrick. "Wes Clark would help reassure the doubters."
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Please go to the web site and read the rest of the article, it is the Washington Times so they have to take a few cheap shots at the general, after all he is a Democratic activist.

Now for my two cents, I have known General Wesley Clark since the early 1980s, when he was a Colonel and I was a SSG at NTC, I grew to respect him for his command and control and his leadership abilities. He cared about the soldiers families, the schools, the facilities for laundry, PX and Commissary issue's, stuff that most Commanders just did not care about, yet have a major impact on daily lives of the troops, because if the wives and kids aren't happy, then daddy can't give his job the 100% effort they need to.

I went back to NTC as part of the 48th Brigade for Operation Desert Storm and ran into Brigadier General Wesley Clark, he was tasked with getting a division level task force thru the OP Force rotation and get the National Guard units from georgia, Arkansas and Lousiana ready to go to war. There were additional add on units, we utilized the entire 1000 square miles of training area on Fort Irwin. Part of General Clarks mission was to use the national Guard Brigades to build a copy of the Iraqi berm complexes that the Alied forces would be attacking when the invasion of Iraq began.

He ran the 48th brigade and others thru the different attack formations of the Iraqi defenses week after week, so that he sent the best battle plan available to General Swarzkopf and the G3 elements to pan the invasion to minimize the damage to our allied forces, and quite frankly the plan worked and we quickly kicked the Iraqi forces defenses to pieces very quickly due to General Clarks hard work. I don't remember ever reading where he got much credit for that behind the scenes work for the first Gulf war. He did get on the fast track for promition though as he had been for years, since his duty in Vietnam, and graduating #1 at West Point, his Rhoades Scholarship, and he was eventually held the same job general Eisenhower did, Commander of all NATO Forces.

He is one of the most educated military officers in history, he has extensive experience in foreign affairs and diplomacy, he would be an asset to any administration, Democratic or republican, he is a true American hero, he does not believe in Blue America or red America he believes in the United States of America, he see's everything in OD green.

He would give either Senators Clinton or Obama the credentials for military experience that Senator McCain is going to beat either of them over the head with, the fact they lack knowledge on how to use military forces properly, and when and why. Hell he would make a better secretary of defense than Donald Rumsfeld ever was, but due to rules he is not eligible until 2011 ten years after he left active duty.

But as a Vice President he would make one hell of a choice for Senator Obama to take on Senator McCain, I have heard Sen Webb suggested due to his Marine Corp service and his service as Secretary of the Navy, yes he is an attractive possibility but he is not General Clark, it is my belief that General Clark is the smartest choice for either Senators, Clinton or Obama to name as their VP, they do not need a VP to carry a state, the voters are charged and ready to vote, they need a reliable military name on the ballot, and Wes Clark gives them that.

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