Other generals have earned high political offices other than the presidency. Alexander Haig was Secretary of State under President Reagan. He is remembered as the “man in charge” when Reagan was shot. Colin Powell, formerly the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the Gulf War, is currently Secretary of State.
A new star is rising on the American political scene, specifically in the Democratic Presidential Primary. Wesley Clark, a retired general of the four star variety, has entered the race with high marks. Some polls have him in the lead and he is certainly within striking distance in several early primary states.
Every general who enters politics faces the same question and that is of party loyalty. A general is a career military officer and serves his country first. His loyalties are to the troops he commands and to the commander-in-chief under whom he serves, no matter the party affiliation. We couldn’t be certain of Colin Powell’s political persuasion until he signed on to the current Bush Administration. General Eisenhower was actually courted by both parties to run for president. And throughout Wesley Clark’s long military career, he has developed relationships on both sides of the political aisle.
At a time when America is questioning the truthfulness of a president that has lead us to war for the sake of profit, but in the name of terrorism, we need a leader in the White House who is tested in war, knows how to win a war, knows how to win the peace and is not beholden to oil companies or any other business entity. As a junior officer and company commander, Wesley Clark came home from Vietnam on a stretcher with two purple hearts and a silver star. Meanwhile, George W. Bush was defending the skies over Fort Worth as a member of the Texas Air National Guard, that is when he felt like showing up, in a unit with other prominent Texas politician’s kids destined to go nowhere near combat. Clark was later the commanding general in the war in Kosovo, which was won without the loss of a single American service member.
Terror has struck America and threatens to strike again. Terrorists, or those who hate Americans more than they love living, are not headquartered in Iraq, as the Bush Administration would have us believe. They are throughout the world. America needs a leader who will focus on fighting terror for the sake of protecting America and not for the sake of any other interest.
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