by James Glaser
January 13, 2004

Wesley Clark is running for President of the United States. For 38 years General Clark trained and commanded men and women in the "art" of warfare. For 38 years this man's job was to kill other people.

Don't kid yourself, America's Army has one principal job and that is to kill our enemies. General Clark spent his whole adult life doing just that and he was good at it. As a Captain in Vietnam, while commanding an infantry company out on patrol looking for the enemy, he was shot four times. He continued to fight and command his men even though he was wounded. He was awarded the Silver Star for his bravery.

There is no doubt that this man is an American military hero. Wesley Clark worked his way from that Captain in Vietnam, all the way up to, Supreme Allied Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty organization.

Let us think about how a man gets all the way to the top in the Army. The number one reason that a person makes it all the way to the top in the Army is that they follow orders. The number two reason is that they don't ask questions about those orders.

Wesley Clark has proven time after time and year after year that he can do as he is told. That is a great asset for an up and coming military officer, but who is going to be giving him orders if he is elected President.

We have to remember that in those 38 years in the service, General Clark never had to wonder where he was going to get food or housing. He never had to worry about keeping his job; all he had to do was what he was told to do. General Clark never had to worry about health care for himself or his family. He never had to repair his house or his car and after a while as he went up in rank, he never even had to drive himself anywhere.

Being an officer, Clark had every enlisted man or woman salute him before even talking to him. For the last decade of his military career, he never even had to see a cigarette butt on the ground, as those are picked up before a General gets there.

Here is what my personal hero, Marine Corps Major-General Smedley Butler, winner of two Congressional Medals of Honor wrote, "I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service."

General Butler was in the service for over thirty years as was Wesley Clark. The difference is that General Smedley Butler was honest enough to admit that in the military all you do is obey the orders of others; you don't even have to think. General Clark hasn't figured that out yet.

Presidents have to be on top of things ready to make a decision at a moments notice. They have to be independent thinkers and they don't have others doing their thinking for them, at least in theory.

For 38 years Wesley Clark has not had to take responsibility for his actions, because he could always point to that piece of paper with his orders written on it. There is no doubt that General Clark was a fine, brave, and able military commander, but is that what we want in a President of the United States?

For over thirty years Wesley Clark killed other human beings for our country and for over thirty years he trained countless others to do the same. That is what you do in the Army and that is what we hired General Clark for. He was good at his job and we should all thank him. However, is this the job experience we are looking for in a President? Do we really want a life long warrior leading us in the 21st century? Would Wesley Clark ever look to peaceful means to answer a problem? Or would he fall back on his life time of learning how to wage war?