Wes tells young progressives in Manhattan what's what
By Carol Kilyanek, A Wes Clark Democrat
Wes Clark appeared at the Taj Lounge in NYC last Wednesday for a “Road to the White House” event sponsored by young progressive group DL21C. I was fortunate enough to attend.
The house was packed. The wonderful Jon Soltz from VoteVets.org gave Wes a moving introduction. Wes spoke and took a number of questions and mingled with the crowd before and after he spoke. All in all a very nice night.
There are video clips floating around and I’m sure a full transcript will be available before too long but here are a few things I pulled from what he said that night.
On people in other countries having imagination, energy, good ideas, etc:
"We are living in a country that inhales oil and petrochemicals and exhales American jobs, technology and greenhouse gasses. We’re not gonna last that way.....We can’t be only a nation of consumers. My son even who’s a screenwriter in Hollywood and will always tell me, “Oh Dad, America’s greatest export is entertainment.” Listen, there are other competitors out there. There’s Bollywood and there’s a whole lot of other stuff. We’re not the only people in the world who have imagination and energy and good ideas and passion and commitment. We can’t believe that."
On what Bush has done to this country:
"We’ve got an arrogant President who took us into a war we didn’t have to fight. But, worse than that, he’s blinded us to who we are as Americans. He’s focused on tax cuts for the wealthiest. He’s encouraged the passage of laws and operated beyond the law, using scare tactics to frighten Americans into surrendering the very rights and freedoms that make us who we are as a people. Can you imagine that this is a country that actually condones torture? That would admit evidence gained by torture into a court of law, in which a President can ignore the law of the land as expressed by Congress by claiming exemption from the law in certain cases in a signing statement? That’s not the America I fought for in uniform. My country doesn’t torture!"
On America’s legitimacy:
"We must restore America’s legitimacy in the world.....not preemptive strike....(not) when America acts, we’re the only ones that are right, no one else counts, we don’t have to talk to anyone else....It starts with repealing the Military Commissions Act and the Detainee Treatment Act and replacing them. Get ‘em out of here. No torture, no indefinite confinement. It’s not America....."
On Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and the “disappeared”:
"We’ve got to get the facts out. Where did the ideas come from and what’s the chain of custody of those ideas, the chain of causation of those actions in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, where were the secret prisons, what was done in our name during rendition and where are these people who’ve been disappeared from our custody from all around the world?"
On diplomacy:
"Diplomacy’s about creating a new vision in the region and we have to create that new vision working with people in the region starting with the Iraqis, the Saudis, the Iranians, the Kuwaitis, the Turks...all the people in that region. And including Israel. There has to be a new and better way for men and women and families to live in that part of the globe and prosper and meet their own dreams....."
On China:
"We’ll be knocking at their door in 15 years (China) beggin’ ‘em to sell us cell phones because theirs will be cheaper and better than what it’s economical to produce in the United States....China has a very ambitious program. It’s not anti-American. They just want their rightful place in the world as they see it."
On health care and a single payer system:
"We’ve got to take the burden of health care off of American business....We should take the CHIP program, we should take the Medicare program and move toward a single payer system that makes health care accessible to every American and affordable to every American."
On labor and unions:
"And we’ve got to change the paradigm between labor and management. I’ve been talkin’ a lot to people in unions and to union leadership and the old idea that unions are there to sort of organize the army of workers to stand firm against the, against the management, create an industrial army, it’s over because industrial armies don’t work in this age but what we do need is we need professional development organizations so that every young person who enters the workforce without a college education can still find a career ladder, to be given expectations and opportunities and hope and have something to work for and achieve."
On the threat of Islamic terrorists vs. the threat of another Republican Administration:
"I’m not afraid of Islamic terrorists. All we have to do is live our values and work with others and do the sort of normal precautionary measures that we need and we can keep this country safe. But I am afraid of another Republican Administration. I’m afraid of a bunch of people who motivate by fear, who believe that control is more important than dialog, who manipulate the public into agreement without airing the facts out, who are afraid of dissenting opinions, who won’t take honest dialog either from their neighbors abroad or from people at home. I’m against that kind of leadership. I was against it in the Army. I’m against it in this country."
On Pace’s idiotic comments:
"Well, I think that he’s way out of line talkin’ like that. I mean, what he considers moral and immoral, that’s his private judgement. The United States Armed Forces is not a moral enforcement agency...There were many issues back in the early 90’s when the don’t ask don’t tell policy was adopted. Those issues are mostly gone now. Attitudes have changed and I see no reason why that policy shouldn’t be thrown out and replaced by a much better policy."
On stopping genocide:
"How should America intervene to stop genocide? When you can make a difference you should. We made a terrible mistake in Rwanda. We could have made a difference there and we failed.....There may be cases where we don’t know, where we can’t intervene, where we can’t do something. But in Darfur we could. And we’ve let it go on and on and on and it should have been stopped long ago."
On Iraq:
"I think you have to lead with diplomacy. Remember to get where we want to be, you’re not, it’s not about killing people. It’s not even about intimidating people. It’s not about creating fear. It’s about creating hope. That's the way you conquer the world, with ideas, not with guns."
On how to pick a candidate:
"One of the flaws of American politics is it’s mostly about money right now and it shouldn’t be. But it’s also, also I think you need to look at actions, not words. The truth is that any candidate who’s running for national office, for the Presidency, puts together a staff and pretty soon they all say exactly the same thing. You were very generous to give me applause for what I said about education and health care and the work force but I think almost every other Democratic candidate would say almost the same thing. I know. I said it the last time I ran....We’d be making a big mistake if we made our decision between candidates on the basis of roman numeral three, sub-paragraph alpha bow legs one of their health care plan. You know when you say you’ll give $50 deductible for people with incomes less than $50,000 a year but he says he can pay that and there’s no deductible therefore I’ll vote for him. That’s not what makes a successful President. What you’ve got to do is look at people’s actions. Now, I’m in the business community a lot and I’ll tell you what any businessman will tell you when you’re gonna to put someone in a leadership position: Look at the record of their actions. People repeat their actions in life again and again and again. Are they strong? Can they make decisions? Can they handle pressure? Do they have a track record of dealing with tough issues effectively? Now that’s the basis on which you’d start in considering candidates in my view.
I wasn’t surprised. I was a little disappointed but when you put ten people on stage...last time it was like a beauty contest....and the amazing thing was that pretty soon everybody, after about five or six debates, everybody started sounding just alike. And I’m finding it now. Three years ago I was the only one saying we needed a new strategy. Now everyone says “Hey I’ve got this great idea, we need...”OK, OK, fine. It’s not about what people say. It’s about who they are and what they’ve done because that’s the best indication of what they can do."
On CIA interventions:
"I never have believed in the CIA interventions around the world. Honestly, when you try to mess in people’s internal affairs, you normally, usually get it wrong."
On Iran:
"Now it just so happens that we’ve isolated Iran for 30 years. I think as a matter of policy it’s time for them to come in from the cold and it’s time for us to talk to them and if I had my way, I would do a preemptive diplomatic strike on Iran....so what we’ve done on stopiranwar.com is, we’ve put out the evidence there and we’ve asked for you to write in to your Senators and Representatives and demand that this Administration talk to our potential adversary, directly and without preconditions."
