An interesting thing happened at the Paul Aronsohn campaign rally I attended in New Jersey where General Wes Clark was the featured speaker. It turned out not to be a campaign rally after all, and that was by intent. Instead it became a non-partisan public assembly after the Aronsohn campaign decided to focus the entire public event on the issues facing New Jersey’s Veterans community, and on providing the entire community with the opportunity to hear from and ask questions to General Wesley Clark regarding the security threats facing both America and the world. I came expecting a political rally and found myself at a civic event, which of course is what lies at the root of all politics in America, public discourse meant to find and advance the civic good for all of our people.

The effect was both sobering and refreshing, and ultimately uplifting, because when all is said and done we are in this all together, us Democrats, Republicans, Independents, or members of Third, Fourth or Fifth Parties also, we all share this land and we share it’s fortunes. Good or bad, we are in this together. So it was a short sharp adjustment of my expectations, but an easy one to make. There I sat in a diverse group of people gathered together to consider the state of our world, not rabid partisans, but they really were no more diverse than my daily life. No more diverse than the people I nod hello to every day on the downtown sidewalk of my semi-rural town. No more diverse than the people I see in the stores where I go shopping. No more diverse than the people I share trains buses and plains with when I travel. It felt good to sit there together and care together about what is happening in our world.

As I sat taking all that in, my regard for Paul Aronsohn rose another notch. Paul is running for Congress to represent the interests of all the people in his Congressional District, and here he was doing exactly that. Of course Paul Aronsohn addressed us, but he never once discussed the political race he was in, or the strong differences he has with his opponent. This event was for the Veterans, this event was for all concerned citizens of that community, and it was about dealing with the problems we face in common. Not that Paul doesn’t draw sharp partisan distinctions about the differing priorities that separates him from his Republican opponent for Novembers Congressional Election mind you, but that type talk was saved for the event that followed, the fundraiser for Paul Aronsohn that General Clark also appeared at immediately following our unofficial free town hall meeting. Here Paul Aronsohn graciously deferred to local Veteran community leaders, here the Building Trades Council provided information to the public about their “Helmets to Hardhats” program, to provide Vets returning from Iraq with meaningful good paying jobs – with 450 already placed and 13.000 registered. They have a website, check it out: www.helmetstohardhats.com is reportedly about to undergo a major upgrade.

Still Paul also got to introduce General Clark to the audience, which gave him a chance to discuss his personal connection to the General, which dates back to when Aronsohn was with the State Department, involved with the situation in the Balkans. Paul Aronsohn was part of that effort to bring peace and justice to that deeply troubled part of Europe, he saw first hand the work that General Clark did to stop another genocide in Europe, and he never forgot it. Paul was pleased to proclaim that he was one of Wes Clark’s earliest backers for President in 2004. In fact he is still the very proud owner of a Clark Bar given to him early in that campaign (that’s one piece of candy we can hope will never get eaten!).

When General Clark approached the podium the entire crowd spontaneously rose to greet him with applause. General Clark looked sharp and crisp in a dark navy pin stripe suit with lighter blue tie, and in the heat of that day I have to tell you, that was no easy feat to pull off. I also must say that the tone General Clark took through most of his presentation was quite sober. Yes there were flashes of his trade mark wit, but Wes was there to talk about serious matters. He started with an overview of the role of America’s military in the after math of World War Two, how primarilly, in his words, “It was about deterring conflict”. He said “We felt when the Soviet Union fell apart the challenge to our security was over.” That sense of relief was shorter lived than many Americans realize however, and Clark detailed how the Clinton Administration came to increasingly view rabid expansionist nationalism and rouge terrorists as emerging threats to both Peace and prosperity, for us and for the world.

Talking about events that unfolded in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, Clark repeated that of course he supported our military intervention in Afghanistan, but subsequently he noted “We made calls that made it more difficult for us. I come from the old school that says don’t ever use military force except as a last, last, last, resort. Well we didn’t really follow that rule, and I think we went into a war with Iraq that we didn’t really need to fight.” On several occasions in Clark’s presentation he wove in the theme of how military conflict without prior and sustained diplomacy with all those who might be party to or effected by that conflict, including those whose views we do not like, can quickly lead to spiraling unintended negative consequences. Along that line Clark mentioned a fact I was unaware of. Equipment deployed to Iraq wears out 7 times faster there than it does in the United States or most of our other bases. A prolonged war inside Iraq was never anticipated by the Bush Administration, and that was never budgeted for.

Touching on the ever present burden of the Iraq war quickly led to a series of personal and frequently emotional recollections from the General, some describing his own experience with and in war, some describing the losses through war suffered by others. Especially during this part, the personal bond General Clark shared with an audience overwhelmingly composed of military veterans was visceral. I felt privileged to be party to the unspoken solidarity present in that crowd. These people understood sacrifice, these people understood loss, and they understood patriotic honor in a way bellicose saber rattling civilians can never remotely touch.

General Clark told the crowd that in Israel, every single vet returning from a combat deployment is automatically assigned a mental health professional who will provide extensive personal counseling to them if needed. He made a real point of saying, this isn’t the same as giving a soldier a reminder that your wife has probably taken on more responsibility for the family while you were gone, so don’t be surprised if she wants to chose the restaurant you go to that night. General Clark is so completely genuine in his concern that the men and women who sacrifice their freedom and risk their lives to protect our nation must be given whatever they need to heal their lives in the aftermath of conflict. This crowd knew that, and they listened in deep silence as he recalled meeting the parents of an Iraq Vet who recently committed suicide because he was haunted by the death in combat of his closest friend and guilt that he couldn’t prevent it. Clark commented, “If you ever see people in that much pain, you will do just about anything to help them.”

General Clark spoke of the mental stress he experienced himself for years in the aftermath of the combat wounds he suffered in Viet Nam, while acknowledging that his own case was a mild one. That struck home for me, but I found myself overwhelmingly moved when General Clark recalled an experience he had as N.A.T.O. Supreme Commander during the air war in Kosovo. As I listened I remembered that I had heard this outline before, but this time, standing in front of a crowd of mostly Veterans, there was a little more detail, and a feeling of intimacy that had me riveted. General Clark started by saying this about when he commanded the air campaign against Serbia; “I believe every human life is precious, and I knew when I was doing the bombing in Serbia – I went to bed praying we wouldn’t kill innocent people.”

Clark recalled a specific accident of War, a mechanical malfunction that affected one bombing mission. He described it in detail, he has it all etched into his memory, exactly how the bomb didn’t operate as designed, how targeting failed, the means by which the bomb “broke”, all the where and whys, and exactly what happened as a result. A cluster bomb designed to explode at 200 feet above a military target instead exploded more than a thousand feet above a school yard, and innocent children died. Wes Clark told this crowd I sat in that somehow, by some means that he can’t explain to this day, a Serbian grandfather of one of the children killed managed to get a personal letter delivered to him. “I got a letter from a Serbian grandfather. He said ‘You killed my granddaughter and I will never forget you, and I will kill you for it.’ And I don’t know how I got that letter during a War, but I’ve thought about that a lot, and prayed for forgiveness a lot.”

There is so very much to write about, and I am out of time to devote to this right now, so I will stop and try to write a Part II later. But let no one ever doubt this; Wes Clark knows what War is. Wes Clark hates what War does. And Wes Clark will never lead our nation into a War unless it is absolutely the last, last, last resort possible.