For President and Commander-in-Chief

Source: Department of Defense

Posted on May 10th, 2008 by anwc
Filed under: Government, Media, Middle East, Military, Truth | Comments Off

By Jane Johnson, U.S. Army Lt. Col. (Ret.)

Tommy Franks, for example, went from being a one star in Korea in late 1994 to commanding CENTCOM as a four-star in the summer of 2000. Ask your source if he would like to imply that Franks’ promotion was politically motivated?

Of course, Eisenhower is an even more extreme example, as he went from colonel to five stars in some two and a half years. The point is, the very highest promotions do not run on any timetable. They are based on the capabilities of the officers and the needs of the service.

Funny, I saw something like this just the other day. It was over on a relatively new veterans message board I found called milnet.com. VERY right wing. What I saw claimed that the General had been a brigade commander (colonel, 0-6) at Waco. From that error, they derived that he went from 0-6 to 0-10 in about four years.

Of course, Wes Clark was a division commander (two-star, O-8) when the BATF assaulted Waco and Clark was nowhere near the place. I don’t know if it was sheer ignorance (there’s a lot of that on the hard right) or if this new lie about his promotions is one they will be passing around in various forms for the next ten years or so.

Wingnuts on the right have long tried to assert that General Clark got his rank from his association with Bill Clinton. All I need do is point out that he was already commanding the 1st Cavalry Division as a 2-star when Clinton was elected. For those that don’t know, the 1st Cav is probably the premier armored division in the US Army. People selected to command it are on their way up.

No governor, as Clinton was at the time, would have had any say in who the Army promotes and assigns. It just doesn’t work that way. But one would think that even the most partisan hack would admit that’s true of a Democratic governor during a Republican administration.

Posted on March 25th, 2007 by anwc
Filed under: Military Career, Truth, Waco | Comments Off

By Rand U. Lee

Will Rogers once famously said, “I don’t belong to any organized party. I’m a Democrat.” Witty, yes, but also true. The Democratic Party has always prided itself on being the Big Tent party, tolerant of dissent and diversity. This diversity of opinion broadens the party’s appeal, but also makes it difficult to form consensus on many hot button topics. Getting a bunch of Democrats to agree is like herding cats.

Ever tried herding cats? I don’t recommend it — your medical insurance might not cover it, assuming you can still find affordable health coverage nowadays. But if uniting the disparate factions of the Democratic Party is like herding cats, don’t we need someone up to the task? Fortunately, we have a mountain lion named Wes Clark.

Presidential politics expert Gene Lyons, author of The Hunting of the President, once described Clark as being like a mountain lion encountered upon a national park trail. No fence or barrier separated Lyons from mountain lion. The raw animal power was held in waiting stillness by willpower alone, each move precise and deliberate, effortless power and feline grace. Being in Wes Clark’s presence reminded Gene Lyons of the time he stood mere feet away from a mountain lion, and the awe and epiphany he felt. Clark possesses the same skill and self-control of effortless power. Read more…

Posted on March 9th, 2007 by anwc
Filed under: Op-Ed, Politics | Comments Off

By Donna Zen

What could be done to de-militarize the country? Wes Clark answers, “Elect someone who understands [the horrors of] war.”

Another example of Wes-knows-best! What the hardcore left refuses to see or accept is that they will not get another chance like this: a liberal general. So they keep on bashing and advocating candidate Peacenik. Peace is the answer; but strangely enough it is someone who has actually fought in a war who will get us there. When Kerry received the nomination, I got a grip and did what I could, but I always knew that his actions of the 60s and 70s negated his cred.

If we are serious about halting the growth of militarism in our beloved country, then we must be serious about our choice of leadership.

Nevertheless, there are two trends that I do believe need to be addressed: (1) the waste, fraud, and abuse currently institutionalized in the Pentagon budget, and (2) an end to the philosophy that all problems are nails requiring the military hammer.

As Wes pointed out during the Council on Foreign Relations Q & A, the military through the QDR (Quadrennial Defense Review) is driving foreign policy. That is dangerous. Any president that understands the need to challenge or change this posture must first understand it. But they must also be willing to spend the political capital, and have the credentials to make their case to the Pentagon and the American people.

Last chance for change: grappling with the strategic framework. Read more…

Posted on February 15th, 2007 by anwc
Filed under: Government, Military, Op-Ed | Comments Off

By Catherine MacClendon

During the last presidential Democratic Primary, there was what I would term a “swiftboat whisper campaign” that began as soon as General Clark, the most decorated officer since Eisenhower, decided to enter the presidential race. Whisper campaigns are what members of the GOP do best (see Bush vs. McCain, Bush vs. Kerry. Allen vs. Webb), in particular to anyone who threatens their monopoly on National Defense or their political well being and in most cases if there is little else in harmful “noise” at hand.

The attempted swiftboating campaign revolved around the unsubstantiated opinion of one General Hugh Shelton who uttered a smear against General Clark when asked if he would vote for the man. Gen. Shelton, a Republican, who just happened to have been the military advisor for John Edwards, another Democratic candidate who was running at the time, responded by attacking Wes Clark’s integrity and character, but conveniently left out the fact that it was he, Shelton, who had played a major role in Clark’s early retirement in 2000. Read more…

Posted on January 13th, 2007 by anwc
Filed under: 2004, Truth | Comments Off

By Doris Lane

A Left Turn FOR CLARK has this to say today: “Wes Clark today is a lonely voice of reason in a rhetoric swamp of fear. While our President sends war ships steaming toward Iran, Clark says peace is still possible, and urges us to escalate the number of diplomats in the region.”

Tom quotes Clark when he said on the campaign trail last year, “People will fight for what they believe in. So if we want a war with a billion Muslims, we can probably have one. I don’t think we want one, we certainly don’t need one, and we should do everything we can to prevent it.”

Bush “moves beyond diplomacy,” according to the New York Times, (this has to be code for something, since Bush hasn’t been at diplomacy enough to move beyond it): “Moving beyond diplomacy” equals war with Iran, just like “surge” equals escalation of war. As General Clark also said, “We’re being set up again, just like we were with Iraq, and what I’ve found in my life is, generally that if you want a war, you can have one.”

The BBC reported yesterday that US troops raided the Iranian consulate in Northern Iraq. Der Spiegel: “As US President George W. Bush was promising to stem Iranian support for the Iraqi insurgency, US soldiers were raiding the Iranian consulate in Irbil, Iraq. The Iranians aren’t happy.” Is it war yet? Or are we still moving “beyond diplomacy”? Read more…

Posted on January 12th, 2007 by anwc
Filed under: Op-Ed, War | Comments Off