Clark says new U.S. view needed May 9, 2007
Posted by jenmarie in defense, military, national goals, national security, speech.comments closed
Former NATO chief tells Union students military might alone not enough
By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer
First published: Wednesday, May 9, 2007
SCHENECTADY — – Military force alone cannot win in Iraq or against terrorism. America also needs a new foreign policy based on values like diplomacy if it is to succeed in the 21st century.
That was the message from retired four-star Gen. Wesley Clark to Union College students on Tuesday.
Clark, who served as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander and led missions in Kosovo and Bosnia during the 1990s, spoke for about an hour in the school’s Memorial Chapel.
The U.S. has lost legitimacy in the world under the Bush Administration, and needs to restore it through traditional American ideals if it is to conquer al-Qaida and other global terror cells, said Clark, a centrist Democrat who hasn’t ruled out another presidential run in 2008.
Toward that end, Clark recommended America move past its fear from the 9/11 attacks and talk without condition to every nation in the Middle East; renounce permanent American bases in Iraq; fully comply with all standards of the Geneva Convention; and do not torture detainees.
“We will never succeed in protecting this country if we become what they are,” Clark told an audience of about 900.
