clark

Issue #44

Last Update March 2, 2006

National The CNN General by Gerry Krownstein The Iraq war has provided a legion of retired military officers with a new profession: TV commentator. Some of these officers provide insight into narrow aspects of the international situation, drawing on professional but limited military backgrounds. A few, however, can draw upon substantial military and diplomatic experience in shaping their analyses of our current situation. Perhaps the best of these commentators is General Wesley Clark, sometime known as the CNN General because of his frequent appearances on that network.

General Clark, in his role as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, has had to practice both domestic and international diplomacy, dealing with foreign governments and the US Congress. He has come to understand the viewpoints and attitudes of our European allies, and their conception of military readiness. Since his retirement from the military, General Clark has become Managing Director for Merchant Banking of a leading investment banking firm. As an invited speaker at the International Futures Industry Conference sponsored by the Futures Industry Association in Boca Raton this month he delivered a devastating critique of Bush Administration foreign policy before a conservative audience and was rewarded with a standing ovation.

His thesis was that following the end of the Cold War there was no “new world order”, just chaos. The military bounced from crisis to crisis because there was no overall political plan and purpose. We met the Japanese and German economic challenges, but the economy is now the victim of its own success. Global warming and ecology, as well as economics, is an international problem. General Clark faults President Bush (W) for withdrawing from international agreements and substituting name-calling for engagement. Having painted himself into a corner, it was too late for President Bush to avert war with Iraq, which General Clark sees as an angry, isolated power that presents no immediate threat to the US; certainly not a par with the threats posed by terrorism, North Korea as a nuclear power, or Iran, which is fast becoming one.

With respect to North Korea, General Clark states that the Kim regime wants to be free of the threat of US invasion (which Clark dates to the Axis of Evil speech) and wants economic assistance. Over Christmas, we changed our North Korean strategy four times, telling South Korea to back away from its policy of openness to North Korea. We should be talking directly to North Korea, Clark stated.

Stating that nationalism no longer applies realistically in the world, he put forth three principals of dealing with the world.
We work with others; we don’t draw hard, take it or leave it lines
We must work with international institutions, like NATO or the UN; after all, we created them and they generally reflect our structural concepts
We are a democracy, slow to use force and then only as a last resort.

In addition to negotiating with North Korea one-on-one, General Clark favors keeping the heat on terrorism, including turning off Saudi funding, and promoting economic well-being abroad. He would have renegotiated the Kyoto Agreement, rather than rejecting it outright, pointing out that the consistent pattern of rejecting international agreements set down by President Bush makes it hard to get international cooperation.

“We must be visionary, because nationalism does not apply; we must be generous; we must be humble, since we are not always right”, General Clark said at the conclusion of his address.