As promised, retired General Wesley Clark announced today in Little Rock that he’s a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President. Already his people have a rather skeletal web site up and running.
His announcement was lacking in policy specifics, but he promised future speeches focusing on the economy and national security. He appeared a little stiff– hardly a surprise, since he’s not an experienced political speaker.
Clark opposed the US invasion of Iraq, but with his background that would be less of a problem for him in a race against Bush than it would be for, say, Howard Dean. Clark thought Iran and North Korea were more pressing threats than Iraq. However he praised the US military’s performance in the war. And though he is critical of the postwar planning, he supports the reconstruction effort.
Still it troubles me that Clark did not grasp the importance of liberating Iraq as a matter of simple humanitarian decency. I’d be interested to hear him explain how he could oppose that war after leading the war that liberated Kosovo from Serbian oppression. After all, the Kosovo campaign was primarily a humanitarian war.
Anyway, now it gets interesting.
