With so many wars and hot spots in the world

should the Dem's run an experienced military man or woman for president like John Murtha or Wes Clark? Bush has so F**ked up our foreign policy and divided the nation with fear and hate, that it is necessary to find a true leader that most americans can get behind.

I think we need to take militarism out of our gov't if we are to be taken seriously around the world.
We need someone who can be a great diplomat, a uniter not a divider!!
I like Clark and Murtha and they could perhaps fill this bill, but they'll always be seen as 'military'!

Clark and Murtha are great leaders that understand the military and will not use it for political means like the chicken hawks we have today

The military is not in our government. If you look at all cabinet members, including the Sec. of Defense, none if any have ever served.

Murtha is not a progressive.....other than his view on the Iraq war, so I wouldn't want him on the ticket.

Clark is a progressive who rose through the ranks, who didn't want to go into Iraq in the first place (unlike Murtha)....and who has showed his humanitarianism at heart during his stint in the military. Whether it was his call to alarm on Darfur, fighting with the pentagon for boots on the ground in Kosovo, or his devoted attention on Darfur, Wes Clark is probably one of the most sensible and rational General/would be politician there is.

What Democrat could cut the pentagon budget pork? I submit that Clark is the only one with nothing to prove.

Who has received more medals from more country than any other officer since Eisenhower? Clark has.
http://securingamerica.com/taxonomy/term/82

What do these medals represent? They represent respect and recognition.

http://www.nhpr.org/node/5339
Clark said:
"I think General Eisenhower was exactly right. I think we should be concerned about the military industrial complex. I think if you look at where the country is today, you've consolidated all these defense firms into a few large firms, like Halliburton, with contacts and contracts at the highest level of government. You've got most of the retired Generals, are one way or another, associated with the defense firms. That's the reason that you'll find very few of them speaking out in any public way. I'm not. When I got out I determined I wasn't going to sell arms, I was going to do as little as possible with the Defense Department, because I just figured it was time to make a new start.

But I think that the military industrial complex does wield a lot of influence. I'd like to see us create a different complex, and I'm going to be talking about foreign policy in a major speech tomorrow, but we need to create an agency that is not about waging war, but about creating the conditions for Peace around the world. We need some people who will be advocates for Peace, advocates for economic development not just advocates for better weapons systems. So we need to create countervailing power to the military industrial complex."

Clark: Don't spare Pentagon
"We need to put all the government spending programs on the table, including the military programs," he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/25/elec04.prez.debate/

seeing Murtha in a VP slot or tagged as a potential Secretary of Defense. I also believe that we need to cut the Pentagon budget significantly. There is no need to have our forces spread all over the world and spend more that the rest of the world combined on our military.

and not Clark, who has shown himself much more progressive than Murtha on most, if not all issues? Just asking.

Read this piece here. http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2004/02/18/opinion/myers.html


I have many others.....

Clark is a progressive and in the same mold as Eisenhower who is his personal hero. The following are some of Eisenhower's quotes:

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed". ( these quotes are a far cry from the civilian leadership which we have now).

Both men have spoken of the dangers of the military industrial complex.

In the times we are living in, each day seems to be a little more frightening; this is only magnified by 24 hour news. I admit to you, after seeing what is going on today, I am feeling a bit of this tugging fear, which has nothing to do with the fear-mongering that the Republicans are spewing. The truth is, they have created some of this world-mess but the world mess is REAL.

McCain will be running as a warrior who "will keep us safe". The only real antidote is a superior warrior who is not a war-hawk, who in his wisdom and experience REALLY has a chance of keeping us safe. Wes Clark could lead from a position of strength and his stature in the world, and at the same time he would safeguard our freedoms.

the strategy you are proposing, but you will get few takers...although your proposal is a rational and commonsensical one (on proposing Wes Clark that is) based on the realities of all that we have been hearing, reading and seeing in the last 6 years...but it is just not going to be that popular here at DU....cause many DUers like to talk about winning, but in terms of coming up with a simple strategy that could actually work, it ain't in them.

There's the Southern Governor Strategy of 1992 (when we were at peace) that's popular for 2008;
the Let's nominate the one that was at the bottom of the ticket the last time strategy for '08
The Let's nominate the Black Junior Senator from Illinois strategy
The Let's nominate Al Gore again strategy
The Let's nominate the guy that's been divorced twice, is single, jewish, 5'6" and voted no on every single defense bill known to man strategy

....But for whatever reason, at the moment...as all hell is breaking loose all over the world, there is not a lot of calls for the "let's nominate the Rhodes Scholar from Arkansas who is also a Democratic General who won the last war the US won without U.S. Casualties who is decorated up the yang yang, is respected all over the world and is progressive to boot and seems to kick GOP ass whenever he opens his mouth strategy.

But...it Figures! :eyes: