Reprinted with permission.

By Gen. (ret.) Wesley Clark
New York Times
December 6, 2005

Doha, Qatar

While the Bush administration and its critics escalated the debate last week over how long our troops should stay in Iraq, I was able to see the issue through the eyes of America's friends in the Persian Gulf region. The Arab states agree on one thing: Iran is emerging as the big winner of the American invasion, and both President Bush's new strategy and the Democratic responses to it dangerously miss the point. It's a devastating critique. And, unfortunately, it is correct.

While American troops have been fighting, and dying, against the Sunni rebels and foreign jihadists, the Shiite clerics in Iraq have achieved fundamental political goals: capturing oil revenues, strengthening the role of Islam in the state, and building up formidable militias that will defend their gains and advance their causes as the Americans draw down and leave. Iraq's neighbors, then, see it evolving into a Shiite-dominated, Iranian buffer state that will strengthen Tehran's power in the Persian Gulf just as it is seeks nuclear weapons and intensifies its rhetoric against Israel.

Today is a day when every American should set aside time to thank the brave men and women who have served in the Armed Forces of the United States. It is a wonderful opportunity for parents and grandparents to tell the youngest family members the stories of family and friends who have helped defend our great nation. Indeed it is a time to teach the importance of volunteering to serve our country.

On this Veterans Day, we should all take time and find ways to support the young men and women whose lives are protecting ours.

We also want to take time on this Remembrance Day to thank every American who has ever served his or her country.

America owes our soldiers, past, present and future our undying love and gratitude for being the embodiment of our core values: Patriotism, Faith and Service.

The WesPAC Team

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October 15, 2005

General Wesley K. Clark delivered the Democratic Radio Response on Saturday, October 15, 2005. The Response dealt with the situation in Iraq.

We encourage you to listen to the radio address.

The transcript of the address is below.