Four Stars for President 2008

On August 3, 2007, General Clark delivered the keynote address at the YearlyKos convention in Chicago, IL.

Watch the Gen. Wesley Clark Keynote, Courtesy UStream.tv Read more at Taylor Marsh and The Washington Note Additional interviews are available from TalkingPointsMemo and UStream.tv.

General Wesley Clark’s Keynote Speech at Yearly Kos 2007

August 3, 2007
transcript by Reg NYC

“We are not questioning the generals. Mr. President, we are questioning you! Stop hiding behind Dave Petraeus.” – Wesley Clark

Jon Soltz: …an Iraq war veteran.

(applause)

(laughs) I find that so funny, because whenever you go to a Republican event, they don’t seem to cheer for the troops. So, I (laughs) I, I thank you guys for that applause. I’m also the Chairman of VoteVets.org a group that (cheering) y’all have been so supportive of that without, without the support of the Kos community we would never’ve been where we are today. We obviously penetrated the political system from the outside much like everybody in this room, and for your support I, I thank you.

It’s obviously an honor to be here. I’m here this morning to introduce General Wesley Clark who, who sits on the board of, of VoteVets.

(applause and cheering)

Click here for Jon Soltz’s complete introduction

Ladies and gentlemen, please give a round of applause for General Wesley Clark.

(enthusiastic cheering and applause)

---

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.

(more cheering and applause)
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
(more cheering and applause)
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
(persistent cheering and applause)
Thank you very much
Etc., etc.

Thank you. It makes me feel good and I haven’t even announced yet.
(laughter and cheering)

That was a joke.
(laughter)

I’m, I’m really happy to be here, and I’m really happy to see all of you here. This community’s made a huge difference in American politics. This is the centerpiece of a new politics, and you can feel it. You can feel it in the energy. You can feel it in the ideas. You can feel it in the enthusiasm and the commitment and the, the, the selflessness that you all have brought into the business of politics. You didn’t work your way up to get positions. You weren’t after a claim. All you wanted was an opportunity to have your ideas heard and to be able to resonate with others who have the same concerns and the same love for America that you have. And you built a community that’s incredibly powerful, and I want to thank you for that, and I want to thank you for what you did for helping Democrats take over the House and the Senate in 2006. You’re wonderful.

(applause)

And I want to, I want to also recognize we’ve got a lot of people here who are working in this community now, you’ve got a lot of people here, you may not have met them, but who are candidates for elective office in the 2008 cycle. And could I ask all the candidates in 2008, if you’re here, would you stand up and let this community get a look at you, because they want to meet you?

(applause)

I’m real proud of those people who are running, because it takes a lot of courage to go out there and run for office. It’s not the kind of courage that you might get a Silver Star for in the military. It’s the kind of courage where you really think about it, where you worry about your family. You worry about what the impact is. You worry about what it’s going to do to your life and whether you actually are pursuing a, a dream that’s got some chance of becoming real. It takes true, deep courage to make those kinds of commitments. So, I salute the candidates, and I’m really proud of you. I hope every one of you win.

(applause)

It’s been a crazy year since those- since, since the last time we got together at Las Vegas, and I know we moved it out of Las Vegas. Chicago’s a great city, but also I hope we’re going to save you some money by being here in Chicago. (laughter) Seemed like a lot of people, when I gave a speech early in the morning, a lot of people were really having trouble. They’d been up all night. (laughter) They’d lost money. And so, maybe this is a, I don’t know, it’s a great setting. But it has been a crazy year.

You know, I listened to, to Rudy Guiliani on the debates, and it seems like everything reminds Rudy of 9/11 and his role in it. (laughter) But it took Michael Moore to take some of the people who were rescuing others at 9/11 to Cuba to get healthcare.

(applause)

It’s been a crazy year. We spent billions and billions of dollars in Iraq on infrastructure, and two nights ago we had a bridge fail in Minnesota. For just a fraction of that money put into our own infrastructure highway programs in America, we could’ve saved 30 or 40 American lives.

(applause)

And who would’ve believed a year ago that this time this year, we’d have more troops in Iraq than we had last year? George Bush reminds me of a rookie pitcher who thinks he’s got a no-hitter going in the 7th inning, and he’s just trying to skate through so the loss can be given to the relief that’s coming in. (scattered laughter) And I look at Iraq, and I’m so filled with admiration for the men and women in uniform. They’re, they’re doing such a great job there.

(applause)

But it’s not about the military. It’s about the political. And it’s not only about the political in Iraq. It’s about the political here at home, and that’s what I want to talk a little about today.

In the last year I’ve traveled all over the world. I’ve been in Asia, in China. I’ve been in the Middle East three times – Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabia twice. I’ve been in Turkey. I’ve been in Eastern Europe – Ukraine, Estonia. I’ve been in Scandinavia – Finland, Denmark. Been in Central Europe in Netherlands and in Italy three or four times. I’ve been in England a couple of times. Been in, in, in the Caribbean and in Panama twice.

Everywhere people love what America stands for. They respect Americans. They love us as people. They’ve read what we say we believe in. They just don’t understand where we are. They’re asking themselves, ‘Where is America?’ on issues like global development when we can’t figure out how to take care of American farmers without penalizing tens of millions of people living at the subsistence level all around the world who can’t do anything but agriculture. So, we’ve got the Doha round of trade talks tied up. They’re asking how sincere is our commitment to alleviating world poverty. They’re looking at how we’re doing on global warming. They, they’ve heard Vice President Gore. It’s, he’s done fabulous job. Hasn’t he?

(applause)

And they’re asking then, then why is it that at every international foundation and forum, the official U.S. position is to block forward movement on issues of global warming, quarrel with the data, disagree with mandatory controls, push timelines back, argue, argue, argue, stall, stall, stall. Where is America?

They’re looking at the enormous changes taking place in Asia, the coming together of the Shanghai Cooperation Council between China and Russia and the Stans, the meeting of the Presidents, the heads of state of Asian governments. They’re saying, ‘Where’s the United States in this?’ What- Where, where is America? ‘You’re the largest economic power in the world. You’re not participating in this?’ And the answer’s, ‘Well, I guess you know we’ve been really caught up in other things, (scattered laughter) and we didn’t play.’ We’re not there.

I go to the Middle East. I look at this enormous outflow of wealth coming created by oil and the development of liquified natural gas opportunities and the outflows of investments in the burgeoning economies in India and China. And where’s the United States in all this? What are we doing in that equation? And when I travel, they ask me, they say, ‘Well look, you know, the biggest cause of terrorism, the thing that we’re most worried about is that you Americans haven’t done your duty in trying to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

(applause)

And oh, by the way, they get around to mentioning Iraq too. (laughter) Not one of them, not one, no statesman, no scholar, no businessman has come to me and said, ‘What you Americans did in Iraq, you know, getting rid of Saddam Hussein, thank you very much. Come and do it to my country!’

(laughter)

They’re, they love what we stand for. They don’t understand where we are. When it comes to protecting human rights, they listen to our rhetoric and they say, ‘But what about Abu Ghraib and then what’s this about your Vice President and these Presidential commissions and this secret rendition program. Where is America? Where’s the America that we thought we knew when we visited your country, went to school there, sent our children there, were in hospitals there? Where is America? We love America.’

I’ve traveled across this country a lot. I did, I did 26 states for the 2006 election cycle, about 86 districts and, and, and states there campaigning for people, and I’m in business and I’m back and forth five days a week, and I meet everybody from mayors and governors down to just people who sit next to me on regional jets or come up to me in airports. And we’re a great country. I love America, and I know you do too. That’s why you’re here.

And some people in America have never had it so good, but I’m asking myself why is it in Arkansas that we have to get 40 dentists together to give free dental care down in Robinson Auditorium in Little Rock and there’s 1000 people in line, most of whom can’t get treated that day, and women come out and say, ‘You know, I’m 30 years old. I can’t afford to have my teeth fixed. Thanks. They extracted this tooth, and…’ This is the wealthiest country in the world, and people are, people are losing teeth. They can’t get dental care. We’ve got nine million children who aren’t covered by health insurance, and President Bush wants to veto the legislation which is going to bring them under the states’ children’s health insurance program, because we’re going to put a 68 cent additional tax on a package of cigarettes. Where is America? What do we stand for as a nation?

People come up to me and they say, I-I ask people a lot, “What do you think the biggest problem is?” Of course, everyone says Iraq first, but then they say, but- jobs. You know, we’re working two jobs, three jobs. It’s a great thing Americans have a lot of energy, but we’re working a lot of (laughter), we’re working a lot of low paid, paying jobs and can’t, we can’t get- seem to move up. We’re just treading water and hoping we can get our kids into college and pay off the loans and not go bankrupt and the car doesn’t break down this month and we’re just struggling to stay alive out there in the greatest country in the world. And speaking of energy, why is it that we can’t have a sensible policy that takes America toward energy independence?

(applause)

All of that of course is just the intro to the latest National Intelligence Estimate which says that Al Qaeda is (chuckles) stronger than ever before and building, rebuilt their base area and they, in the, in the region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. And I don’t agree with those who say that the Al Qaeda is the Fourth World War. I don’t think it’s that way, but I do think that they are dangerous. They are a threat, and they need to be dealt with, and what we’ve done is we’ve actually strengthened Al Qaeda by not focusing on the problems in Afghanistan and diverting attention, putting our Armed Forces into and creating a cause celebre in Iraq, which has been a great recruiting incentive for Al Qaeda.

So, we’ve got some real problems out there, and we’ve got to address them. And I’m here with you today, because I’m going to ask for your help in addressing them the right way. We’ve, we can’t work what we need to work where we are right now. What we need to be doing is we need to be using this moment of America’s preeminence to reshape the international institutions that provide the framework for the global economy and addressing the problems of mankind that are too big for any one nation to handle – poverty, health, disease, global warming, the prevention of war, the protection of human rights. Those are beyond the range of any single nation no matter how… We need those inst- We need the help from international law and institutions. We need to work those issues.

And we need to rebuild American so we can compete more effectively in this global economy – healthcare, education, infrastructure, the environment, new technology, a better business environment, new relations with labor. We can’t do that until we find a way out of Iraq. We got to get out of there.

(applause)

But here’s where, here’s where I need your help. We got to get out of there the right way, because unlike Vietnam, when we leave Iraq, we’ll still be left with a whole passel of interests there. We’ll still have concerns about Iranian nuclear potential. We’ll still have worries about Israel and the Palestinians. We’ll still be worried about, yes, the security of the world’s principal supply of oil. We’ll still be worried about our friends in the, in the Persian, in the Arab Gulf who, who are dependent on us for some of their security. We’ll still be worried about Lebanon. We’ll still be worried about terrorists. Those interests won’t go away simply by pulling U.S. troops out. So, we not only have to come out, we have to come out the right way.

Now, from the President’s perspective, Iraq is just a war. And he’s real happy General Petraeus is over there, because General Petraeus is a General, and George Bush always listens to Generals. (laughter) He’s told you that. And when he gets-

(applause)

When he gets tired of listening to them, he replaces them.

(laughter, then applause)

I know these guys. They’re all my friends. Many of them have worked for me or worked with me and, and I admire them, and they’re doing a terrific job. And I admire Dave Petraeus. He’s a fine officer, but he’s going to do his best to make the surge work. That’s his duty, and I think you can see by the results that where you put American troops, they’re competent, they’re capable, they’re well led, they’re well motivated, they’re fearless, they do their duty, and of course they do make a difference. If you’re a terrorist or you’re Al Qaeda in Iraq or you’re the Madhi’s Army and you come face to face with American troops, you’re in trouble. You take a shot at them, they shoot back. You miss, American troops hit. Our soldiers, they hit what they shoot at. They’re trained to do that, and they’re good, and I’m proud of them.

(applause)

But what we’ve got to do is create not an argument in the United States over the troops or their tactics, but raise the debate to the administration’s strategies and policies in this region. Here’s why. We can’t succeed in Iraq with the numbers of troops, no matter how good they are, because you can’t succeed in this war just by killing people or intimidating the opposition.

(applause)

Dave Petraeus would be the first one to tell you that. The military’s part of the solution. It’s not the answer. The answer’s the politics. The politics inside Iraq are not just people who are afraid. It’s not just a group of people who say, ‘Gee, if I just, if I could just let my kids go to school, I wouldn’t have to join a militia.’ Maybe there’s some of that, but there’s a lot more than that going on. This is a power struggle within religious factions. It’s a power struggle between religious factions. And it’s a geo-strategic struggle between different nations in the region. – All playing out on the ground in forms of violence, intimidation, blackmail, corruption, payoffs, influence, healthcare, coaching, counseling, there’s no telling how many different intelligence agencies and means of action and influence from different nations are present in Iraq. It’s a whole lot more then the number of nations participating in our coalition. I can promise you that. (Applause)

And so, we’re not going to solve this problem unless we work it at the diplomatic level and that means we’ve got to stop isolating people we disagree with and start engaging those people.

(applause)

The Iranians have tried several times over the last three or four years to engage us. We’ve rebuffed them every time. Of course, you understand the Iranians are not our friends. We’ve been in a virtual state of war. It’s a cold war. We’ve been in a state of war with them for 30 years, and that government is not our friends. Now, their population is the most pro-American population in the Middle East. They all love Americans and 61 of them, 61% of them think they’re government’s no good. That’s what the latest polls show. But the Iranian government is not going to have a friendly conversation with the United States. Look, they’ve got something they think we want. We want some support in Iraq and we want them to stop building their nuclear weapons. These people are in this for sort of the larger aggrandizement of their, of their purposes, their, their nationality, their heritage, their religious faith. And so, they’re going to bargain. They’re going to joust. They’re going to work. The United States has to engage. It can’t isolate and get what it wants. It’s time to engage.

The Bush administration says we don’t have enough leverage. Well, we’re the most powerful country in the world. We’ve got aircraft carriers on two sides of Iraq. We got air bases on the other two sides. We’ve got planes that can fly over. We’ve got military dominance over Iran. And we can go into Iran any time we want, and they know it. Not only that, we’re the most powerful nation economically in the world. Virtually every organization that Iran wants support from we either control, dominate or heavily influence. So, we don’t have enough leverage? We want to capture five more Iranian spies or something? It doesn’t make sense.

Let’s get engaged. Let’s talk. Let’s give our troops the kind of diplomatic support they need. We’re-

(applause)

Now, people usually say, ‘Okay well, what’s your plan?’ Well, we did this in the Balkans. We started with a statement of principles. We had, here’s the principles we’re looking for. Here’s what we can do, plusses and minuses for you. And then we sort of launched out. As Richard Holbrooke said, “It’s not exactly, it’s not exactly like a military plan, it’s more like jazz.” You know, the thing about diplomacy and engagement is it takes two, three, four sides to participate. So, you can draw up all the timelines and visits you want, but it doesn’t mean anything if you haven’t got the other side to sort of engage with you.

So, no one can sit up here and give you a timeline for diplomacy. No one can say, ‘Two trips to Tehran, then a trip to Damascus, then a trip to Riyadh, then back to…’ That all has to be worked out in the process, but what has to be done to start that process is the United States has to be willing to engage with a nation that we don’t like. And to do that we have to be willing to move away from the state of war that we’re a part of with that nation.

(applause)

I’m not saying that Iran is not a serious problem, but I’m saying you can’t, you can’t deal with that serious problem until you’ve tried to engage. I’m not taking any options off the table with Iran, but remember the rule: When you’re talking about the use of force, it’s only, only, only, ONLY as a last resort.

(applause)

But now, here’s our problem. Okay? We- the administration doesn’t want to talk about this. What they want to talk about is troops. They want to say they support our troops, and if we question the numbers of troops or their effectiveness, they want to say, ‘You people don’t support our troops. If you don’t support our troops then you’re not patriotic, and if you’re not patriotic, then you don’t have a voice.’ I mean, that’s what leaks out from everybody from Undersecretary Edelman and Vice President Cheney all the way down in every dialog.

When we argue about troops, what we’re doing is we’re playing on George Bush’s home court. That’s what he likes. Now, I’m not up here saying, ‘Okay, let’s go play on his court. Let’s say he’s only put 170,000 troops. The Democrats, we should put 270,000 troops in.’ Listen, I would’ve done it if I’d had it at the beginning. I wouldn’t have gone into the mission, but having the decision been made, it was clear we didn’t, we never’ve had enough troops to do the job. But you’re not going to change the policy by arguing about the troops strength. We’ve done it. We’re on record. We want the troops home, but may I suggest that if we can raise the dialog, take it away from George Bush’s safe ground of troops and people in uniform and ‘How dare you question these Generals and these people in uniform that are so patriotic,’ and say, ‘No, we’re not questioning the Generals. Mr. President, we are questioning you, you’re administration, your leadership!’

(loud cheering and applause)

I want you to say to President Bush, ‘Mr. President, stop hiding behind Dave Petreaus and come out here and defend YOUR strategy! This is your war. You defend it.’

(more loud cheering and applause)

I mean, I’ve been there in uniform, and when your boss tells you, ‘Go in there and do the best you can,’ (chuckles) you do the best you can, and you try to make it work. And that’s what Dave Petraeus is doing, but you can’t win it with what Dave Petraeus is doing. The only person who can make a difference is the person who controls the overall strategy in the region.

We need your help. We need you to hammer on the theme of the strategy and the policies. Stop Isolating people we disagree with. Start engaging. Come out with some real American leadership instead of simply leading by sending men and women in uniform into combat.

(applause)

I think what we ought to do about Iraq is pull two brigades back by Christmas, because I think the Army’s overcommitted.

(applause)

But i think what we really need is we need the United States Congress and the American people to stand up and be counted, and say, ‘Mr. President, the problem in Iraq is NOT troops strength, it is NOT the surge, it is NOT how good our men and women in uniform is, it is the FAILURE of YOUR leadership in the region!’

(applause)

So, I’m hoping that with your help, the energy that you bring, the contacts you have, the ideas that you take and roll around and work and come out sophisticated and smart and powerful, that you’ll be able to reach out and help influence our elected representatives to not only talk about troops and tactics, but to talk about strategies and policies, to give this administration in writing, in legislation a deadline for coming forward with its strategy in the region, defending it, receiving the guidance from the Congress about what it needs to do, because if we don’t get at the strategy, we’re not taking care of the troops and we won’t succeed.

I don’t think Iraq is, well I was going to say I don’t think it’s a total failure, but it’s getting pretty down, far down the list. It’s clearly not going to be a Western-style democracy. It’s not going to have the America flag imprinted on one corner of its constitution. (laughter) It’s not going to invite the United States Congress to, or the Presidency to send a representative to sit in permanent session with the Iraqi Assmebly. It’s not going to ask to become a member of NATO. It’s not even probably going to ask to host U.S. bases. In fact, the majority of Iraqis seem to want us to leave.

But what we can hope for still is a state that holds together, that doesn’t break apart. And we can hope for a state that tries to work law and order issues with its own, within its own territory and doesn’t become a breeding ground for future terrorist activities or for exporting violence in the region. And we can hope for a state that in some way will allow the wonderful, industrious, smart and capable people of Iraq to make their own way forward. And we can hope for a state in which thousands of Iraqis aren’t dying every month.

(applause)

Those are pretty modest, those are pretty modest objectives, and as we move toward those objectives, if we do it the right way, I think we can protect the larger U.S. interests in the region and we can withdraw our troops, but we can’t do it without a change in the United States strategy of engagement in the region. We must engage people we don’t agree with. We must take seriously our responsibilities to help bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

(applause)

And, and we must do all this soon, because that war in Iraq is costing something like 100 billion dollars a year, and our children need healthcare and our country needs innovation and our roads need repair, and there’s a long list of things we need to do for our country and the world that we can’t do until we get out of Iraq. And if we are going to get out of Iraq. We got to get out the right way, because history doesn’t stop when the last American troop heads down the road to Basra. We’ve still got our interests there. We need American leadership.

So, I’m looking to you, this community, you Kossacks.

(laughter and applause)

Help put the intelligence in U.S foreign policy. Help put the intelligence in this debate. Help America get its priorities right. Help us recapture this vision of America, this great and noble country that protects human rights, that’s generous, that welcomes strangers, that gives to the world its ideals, its ideas, its wealth, its technology, its selfless service. That’s the America they’re looking for. It’s the America we’re looking for, and it’s the America that you can help us achieve.

Thank you.

(enthusiastic applause)

Thank you. Thank you very much.

We got a couple of minutes.

(continuing applause)

Thank you. I’d like to hear from you.

(more applause)

I appreciate the applause, but- Thank you. Can-

We got, we got about ten minutes for questions or maybe a little bit more than that, questions and do we have microphones out here?

unidentified: Yeah.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Okay. He’s got a mic right here. It’s kind of hard to see with the stage lights. Go ahead, sir.

Bob Reuschlein: Yeah.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Tell us who you are.

Bob Reuschlein: Bob Reuschlein, Madison, Wisconson. And isn’t the real problem in Iraq, doesn’t it start back with Cheney’s task force starting an oil map of Iraq and, and go on with the Downing Street Memos, where they planned the war long before they lied to Congress about the diplomatic route and so forth – you’re nodding your head – and that we’ve gone there and we’ve defended the oil ministry while everything else was ransacked? And does, doesn’t it really come down to the political benchmark now that we’re demanding 70% of the oil money go to international oil companies rather than Iraqi citizens, and that’s what we’re really holding out for before they’re willing to do something about Iraq?

(applause)

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I, I, think, I think oil’s definitely a factor. I agree with what you said about the war being planned. I agree with what you said about the deceit in the intelligence community. It was a war we should never have had to fight. I can’t, based on what I personally know, lay it all to the issue of, of oil. There’s a lot going on in this region right now. It’s a cross-current, and that area at the head of the Persian Gulf, that’s critical, because Iran definitely is seeking to move Westward. Th-this is the historic Persian Empire. Darius wants to come back and assail the Greeks, and he wants the shores of the Mediterranean, and he wants Lebanon through Hezbullah, and he wants Syria as a corridor, and he wants his, his left flank toward Mecca and Medina protected by control of Basra. And all of that’s part of this equation. So, it’s not just oil, but you’re right. Oil’s a big factor, because who’s in Darfur right now, where no one’s discovered oil?

(applause)

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Right here.

Audience member: You called for one of the hopes for Iraq to hold together. Serious people in foreign policy thinking, some of them believe that that’s actually one of the impossibilities at this point in terms of Kurdish independence, Sunni-Shia splits, irreconcilable Sunni Ba’athists who are not going to reconcile to Shia dominance, et cetera, et cetera. In terms of split, three-way split versus holding together and what influence we can have internationally in, with the international community for a settlement in that direction?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well, you have to be careful about the analogies with, with the Balkans. This is not quite like the Balkans. And so, I know a lot of people talk about this. They say, ‘Look, you guys separated, you stopped the war in, in Bosnia. You stopped all this. You separated..’ I-it’s a little bit different. It’s different because the Balkans is not the Middle East. These issues are more complicated. there’s oil involved here. There’s different populations. There’s powerful neighbors who are at odds with each other, and the populations aren’t actually separated. So, you’re right in that there are fracture lines that you can see forming. You know the Shias mostly have the South and they want it. And the Kurds mostly have the North, but they don’t have Kirkuk, and they’re prepared to fight Kirkuk. I don’t know if you saw the, the Bob Novak piece on the weekend that said we’re going to run a special operation inside the Kurdish area to eliminate the PKK guerrillas in combination with Turkish Special Forces. And THAT’ll make us really popular there. (laughter) And, and you’ve got Iran, Turkey.. i-i- This may well be what happens, but I would hate to see the United States propose it and have to worry about implementing it, because it’ll be one more recipe for conflict. There’s no simple mechanistic way out of this. This is about human dynamics. It’s about engagement. It’s about changing people’s minds. It’s about Westernization over a period of time, and it can’t be done in isolation in Iraq. You’ve got to reach out to Iraq’s neighbors.

Yes, sir.

Jeff Nyber:: Can you hear me?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Yeah.

Jeff Nyber: I’m Jeff Nyber from Pleasanton, California. And you just answered most of my question. So, I’ll ask you another one. So, you just elaborated on your idea about pulling out of Iraq and how to end the Iraq war, and you yourself are not an announced candidate for President. I was wondering which of the candidates that are currently running (laughter) you feel is, is closest to your vision.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I haven’t, I haven’t endorsed anyone yet. I like, there’s a lot of great people in this race, and you know, I’ll just tell you, I’ll tell you this story. I’ve told some of you this before. But when I first got out of the military, I was approached by a lot of, when they heard I was moving back to Arkansas to take this investment banking job back there, people got the mistaken idea that I was going to go back there and run for office. And so, the Republicans started to come to me, and I went to see Mark Warner, who at that time was an investment banker, and I said, “How should you think about politics, about running for office?” He said, “Well, first of all,” he said, “don’t do it unless you’re prepared to lose.” He said, “Because no matter how many things you’ve won in your life, normally when you go into politics, you lose.” He said, “I did it. I ran for the Senate. I lost.” He said, “Secondly, when you lose in politics, you can lose everything.” He said, “Cost me 12 million dollars,” I think is what he told me, “to run for the Senate in ‘96.” He said, “But you lose your money. You’re going to lose your reputation. You can lose your family. You can lose your profession. You can lose your community.” Says, “The, it’s unlimited downside.” He says, “So, my advice to you is if you can live without it, don’t do it.” (laughter) He said, “Politics isn’t for everybody, because your family situation’s not right or this is not right.” So, we’ve got some people in this race right now who are very qualified, capable, committed, motivated people. I admire them, and I think that any one of them is far superior to the guy that’s in the White House right now.

(applause)

This is the last question. I’ve got time for just one question here and and one quick answer. Yes, sir.

Tom Rinaldo: I’m Tom Rinaldo (inaudible), New York.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I know, Tom.

Tom Rinaldo: Good to see you.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: It’s good to see you.

Tom Rinaldo: My question relates to diplomacy, and I’ve been pleased that Democrats in general, our Presidential candidates, our current Presidential candidates show a greater willingness to proclaim that we should be willing to talk with Iran for instance without preconditions, but what I hear them defining as diplomacy pretty much stops there. It’s like, ‘Sure, I’ll talk to them. I’ll lecture them. I’ll tell them what they have to do. I’ll tell them why they’re wrong and why we’re right. And sure I’ll organize diplomatically. I’ll organize a coalition of people to put pressure on them.’ It’s all the stick.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Right.

Tom Rinaldo: There’s no acknowledgment that we shared-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Yeah.

Tom Rinaldo: -intelligence with Saddam Hussein, when Saddam Hussein invaded Iran. There’s no acknowledgment that it’s our policy of regime change which is pushing them towards giving us trouble in Iraq and elsewhere. And if our own Democratic Presidential candidates can’t even admit that diplomacy means really grappling as an alternative to war, it means its not.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Right.

Tom Rinaldo: It’s not just, ‘Sure, I’ll tell them what they have to do.’ How can we break through on that?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Well okay, maybe you can break through by looking at it this way. According to O’Reilly diplomacy’s like having a chat. (laughter) But of course, then he’s never done diplomacy.

(laughter and applause)

This- Imagine diplomacy’s three levels. Okay? Level one is the most superficial kind of diplomacy that says, ‘Okay, I’ll talk to you, you no good, stinking you,’ you know, ‘Get out of here. If you ever do this, I’ll blow your head off.’ Okay. That’s check the block. Thank you very much for the diplomacy. The next level down is, this is what I call the Jim Baker diplomacy. You walk in to the guy and you say, ‘You know,’ (clears throat) ‘I’m here representing the United States’ (Texas accent) ‘and I wonder what it’s goin’ take for you boys to see things our way.’ (laughter) And so, you get into the sort of horse tradin’. Say, ‘I’ll give you this if you’ll give me that.’ That’s the second level of diplomacy.

The third level is the level that I’m talking about. You go in with a statement of principles. You say things like, ‘Borders should be respected.’ ‘People should have rights.’ ‘Nations should choose their own form of government.’ ‘No nation should use force to threaten another nation.’ Say, ‘Which one of these principles do you agree with?’ When they say, ‘We agree with all of them,’ you say, ‘Good. Can we, can we sign a statement and sort of say there’s an agreement in principle here on these things?’ And you work it through statements and agreements of principles into greater community of interests, into organizations that can deal with those specific interests. Is it about border controls? Is it about the movement of agricultural products? Is it about marketing petroleum. Is it about sharing refining assets? Is it about exchanging security? Is it about turning over Al Qaeda members held in Iraq? Is it about releasing reserves that have been held in New York, financial reserves? There’s a multiplicity of issues. There’s a long way we can go down there.

But diplomacy’s not simply going in and threatening them and saying, ‘There, I talked to them. Okay? You guys do this again, you’re dead.’ (laughter) Diplomacy’s not simply going in and say, ‘I’ll give you this. You give me that.’ It’s about changing people’s perception of their future possibilities. Imagine if Iran actually believed it could be accepted as a member of the world community, join the World Trade Organization, receive financial assistance from Western banks, major Western…, be invested in by the American oil industry (laughter), and participate in all the fruits of the economy. Imagine that. The Iranian people would love it. They want blue jeans, pop music, travel and access, just like the people of Eastern Europe. Surely, we can build a dialog which diffuses tensions and may give us an opportunity to find common interests or convergent interests, and surely we have to try to do that before we resort to threats or beyond. And that’s what I mean by diplomacy.

It hasn’t been done, and we need your help so our elected Representatives will put the pressure on this administration to do it or force the administration to acknowledge the bankruptcy of its strategies and policies. We need leadership from you Kossacks, the future. Give us that leadership! Thank you!

(applause and cheering)

Great to be with you. Thank you.