General Clark and Paul Aronsohn Address Veterans at American Legion Post 170
by Knightrider
August 1, 2006
New Rochelle, NJ
This account was edited for length, full report available here .
Shortly after 6pm, we began the event by first standing up, facing the American flag, placing our right hand over our hearts and reciting the "Pledge of Allegiance."
Afterwards, Paul took to the podium to introduce his special guest, Wesley Clark. Paul's profound respect for Clark was very apparent from the start, noting that he had worked vigorously for Clark's '04 presidential campaign. However, he said that their talk was not intended to be a partisan, instead it was indeed focussed on veteran issues, concerns and affairs. After reading Clark's impressive resume and list of accomplishments, Paul invited Clark to the podium to speak to the veterans of Post 170.
As always, Clark began by acknowledging the service of our veterans, asking those who served to raise their hands. We all applauded in support and gratitude.
The world is a dangerous place
Overall, Clark's speech primarily focussed on national security, foreign policy and veteran issues. He began by acknowledging that the world was indeed a dangerous place, as "we" (the vets) knew that it was during the Cold War, Korean War and Vietnam. Back then, he added that for most of them, "our" job was to deter the spread of communism.
He also reminded everyone that although he had always critical the administrations policies, his speech was not intended to be partisan, because what we face as a nation today must never be a partisan issue.
Clark criticized that "some of what we did had weakened the national security challenges that we face"; and acknowledged that "some of it had helped us." As an example, he noted that he had supported fighting in Afghanistan to go after OBL, improving homeland security, securing American ports and protecting our metropolitan centers like LA, NYC, Seattle. But where we had been "seriously" weakened was from our invasion of Iraq. He charged from the beginning that it was a mistake -- "it was a war that we didn't have to fight." He again reminded us why he was always against it. Saddam may have been dangerous, but he was never a direct threat to the US. Clark even added that he contributed to the bombing campaigns against Iraq, which effectively "contained" Saddam. Clark honored the old school of military thought/principles, which followed a rule that "we should never use the military unless it’s the last, last, last resort!"
But now, with our entry into Iraq with well over $20-30 billion wasted for its costs; we probably did not have enough troops in Iraq to get the job done right. In fact, he believed that our forces were probably over-committed.
My take of Clark's message is that we now live in a more dangerous world and that we are confronted with more difficult issues because of Iraq and the failures of this administration Mideast policies and misleadership.
On post traumatic stress disorder. (PTSD) :
The war has also inflicted a psychological toll for our vets. Clark noted that the VA and its programs were severely underfunded and he shared a personal story from a recent campaign stop for Len Boswell in Iowa. Both had met with a mother, whose son had returned from Iraq on his 20th birthday, Thanksgiving day. However, the family noticed that he placed an enormous sense of guilt on himself because he had survived, while his closest friend had not. One day he wrote a note, put on his uniform, got in his truck and committed suicide, just moments before his mother raced to the truck to try and stop him. We all could see how this was a very emotional story for Wes to share. Clark then shared how he lived through his own challenges for decades after being critically shot at Vietnam. He said that he was "damned mad, ... darned mad" that he was not able to "kill" the soldier who tried to kill him.
In his view, all vets suffer from some level of PTSD. Main point, Clark stressed that our government needed to provide greater funding to the VA, so that it could provide better "professional" treatment regimens for vets , which would properly recognize and treat soldiers with PTSD.
On Lebanon, Israel and the Mideast Crisis :
"We're in a real difficult situation now," because of the crisis between Israel and Lebanon. Clark notes that although the US had and will always be a strong supporter for the state of Israel -- particularly providing military weapons systems, America had also played a major diplomatic role in the region towards promoting our values for democracy with our close Arab allies, like Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Unfortunately, the administrations policies in the middle east continues mostly to compound our efforts to stabilize the region.
So as a matter of policy (diplomacy), if the US was going to best help Israel, then the best help that we could provide was "to use our peculiar diplomatic strengths and international reputation to do the things to help the region."
To achieve this, even now, Clark added that we must approach this problem against our national security in a nonpartisan way:: "we must start concentrating on the leadership that solves problems, rather than one that uses rhetoric and labeling."
Q&A portion : Clark's best format to address issues.
Q:: How do vets address growing cases of homelessness?
Clark :: "(True) Leadership starts at the bottom,.. not at the top." Get involved, ...1 in 4 Americans are family members of the military, 70 million Americans. He said that together, they can persuade federal and state officials to address veteran issues.
Q:: I'm paraphrasing from Guyman: "How much more commitment, troops and money are we going to commit and invest before we decide or realize that it's time to leave Iraq? ..."
Clark :: Clark mentions that it's not about Iraq only, but this is now a regional problem and about regional stability. How does "Iraq" effect these nations? (Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc). There's real risks for greater conflicts and regional instability. He reiterated his earlier positions, noting that the US should always continue to pursue a diplomatic and political solution, especially with all of Iraq's regional neighbors. This is not about using the military alone to resolve issues and conflicts, which has unfortunately been the main instrument of policy misused by this administration.
