Clark provides Sept. 11 perspective
September 12, 2006
By JONATHAN FREI | Staff Writer | The Herald-Star
BETHANY — Retired four-star Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who served as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s supreme allied commander in Europe, spoke Monday at Bethany College’s Old Main to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Bethany College Student Activities Council, Student Programming Board and Student Government Association sponsored Clark’s visit, and more than 300 people gathered to hear the general speak about the events that led up the Sept. 11 attacks, successes and failures of the United States in recent international conflicts, the world terror scope and U.S. security.
“What a day to be here, on Sept. 11, five years after that fateful morning,” said Clark. “What happened that day? Why did it happen? It’s a story of murder, revenge. I want to tell the story from non-partisan perspective. I want to talk from the basis of professional knowledge. Consider me a doctor of strategy.”
He said the real beginning of the events that led up the Sept. 11 attacks was around 1980 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with 100,000 troops during the Cold War.
“They don’t like foreigners. They don’t like to be invaded. These are people, like people anywhere, who like to be with their own kind,” Clark said.
He said the United States “helped create a resistance movement. We created for the Soviets a ‘Vietnam.’”
The Soviets were leaving by 1988, he said. “They had been defeated by tribesmen” with training, money and Stinger missiles to shoot down helicopters provided by the United States and Saudi Arabia, Clark said.
He noted after the cold war, America pulled out of many of its foreign bases and lost interest in foreign affairs. “When we won the Cold War, we lost our strategy in the world — our strategy of nuclear deterrents and containment.”
Abandoning this strategy and losing interest in what was happening abroad helped lead to the Sept. 11 attacks, he said. This loss in interest let the government ignore a significant threat.
“We knew during the 1990s that Osama bin Laden was our biggest threat” due to the embassy bombing and the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole.
“Everybody briefed the (incoming) administration of what the problem was. (The incoming administration) didn’t see it as a key problem for America. It was a massive failure by the American people, by the system. You could lay the blame 100 different directions.”
Difficulties in the war on terror are still overwhelming, according to Clark.
“Iraq was a war that was purely optional,” Clark said during a press conference prior to his speech. “It was the decision of the president and his advisers to fight that war, and we all have to bear the consequences of that.”
Clark did say, however, that the war in Afghanistan is one that the United States needs to fight because the Taliban is a real threat to America.
“Today Afghanistan is disintegrating,” Clark said during his address to Bethany students. “The Taliban are back, re-armed, engaged. We don’t have enough NATO troops there.
“It was easy to believe when that big statue of Saddam Hussein fell, it was over.”
He said tribes, religious leaders and militia are really in charge in Iraq and the government is “in name only.”
“How do we win the war on terror? How do we finish? You have to start at the big picture level. You have to make more friends than enemies in the world. You need the governments there to help you. It starts with a campaign to help friendly governments, good cooperation with law enforcement agencies,” Clark noted.
He explained that at this point the way to win the war in Iraq is through regional diplomacy by making friends with Iraq’s neighbors, implementing a working government that has real political power and giving the U.S. troops the resources they need.
Clark said he thinks now the U.S. presence in the region is necessary. “We need our troops in the Middle East.” He added it would be a “disaster” for troops to leave.
He also said he thinks there are other parts of the Middle East that greatly need the America’s attention.
“Our government needs to be committed to finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem. When people are killed, their relatives take revenge.”
Another part of the world also needs attention, he said. “We’ve got to focus on the challenges of China — a global economic competitor.”
He concluded by encouraging Bethany students in the role they must play in the future of the world. “We’ve got to take a different view of the 20th century. (Your) generation has got to step forward and be the greatest generation. I hope you look at the world as it is and dream about how it could be. We’ll only win (the war on terrorism) if we stand up and live what we believe in.”
After graduating first in his class from West Point in 1966, Clark was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where he earned a master’s degree in politics, philosophy and economics.
During his 34 years of service in the Army, Clark rose to the rank of four-star general and served as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. In his final military command, Clark commanded Operation Allied Force, NATO’s first major combat action, and he was responsible for the peace-keeping operation in Bosnia.
After his retirement in 2000, he became an investment banker, author, commentator and businessman. He stood as a Democratic candidate for president in September 2003 before he returned to the private sector in February 2004.
Former President Bill Clinton awarded Clark the Presidential Medal of Freedom in August 2000, which along with the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, is the highest civilian award in the United States. He has been awarded the Silver Star, five Defense Distinguished Service Medals, four Legion of Merit Awards, two Army Distinguished Service Medals, two Bronze Star Medals and the Purple Heart.
