Saturday Evening with General Clark
by Jack
February 2, 2006
This account was edited for length, full report available here .

Saturday night, February 4th, I attended a reception for General Clark in Culver City.

One thing that I have heard about General Clark is that when he is talking to you, he has his full attention on what you are saying and I found that to be absolutely true. You can't escape that impression of tightly-wound energy. He had been going full-tilt all day and looked like he was ready to go all night.

I didn't track how long the General spoke, but it wasn't nearly long enough. I didn't try to take notes but tried to pay attention to the manner in which he answered questions. I was looking for honesty, sincerity and real answers to the questions.

Every single question that the General was asked (spying, Iran, wounded vets, it was obvious that he had given the subject a lot of thought and his answers were very comprehensive and very well structured (point- by- point-by-point). He also has a way of bringing in his personal involvement. This was particularly true when he talked about visiting wounded vets and how important the support of their families was.

He emphasized how important it is for all of us to support all of the returning troops, particularly those who have suffered debilitating wounds.

When asked about Iran, he spoke about the so-called, "axis of evil" and the relative threat of Korea, Iran and Iraq. GWB chose to attack Iraq (which the General described as a "two-foot rattlesnake in a box" as compared to the genuine threats of the other two to our national security). He stated that militarily, we could probably go in and knock out their nuclear capability, but that would leave us in pretty much the same situation as when GWB declared, "Mission Accomplished". Again, he stressed the need to exhaust all diplomatic avenues before taking military action.

Bottom line, I heard and saw what I was hoping to. As many people have said, "He is the real deal". While he didn't discourage talk about him running in 2008, he made it clear that everyone's priority right now should be on 2006.

Jack
Lt Col USAF (Ret.)