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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (186760)	5/16/2006 10:23:55 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 281500

A general holds appeal for a nation weary of war _____________________________________________________________ BY DAVID YEPSEN DES MOINES REGISTER POLITICAL COLUMNIST May 16, 2006 desmoinesregister.com The nation is bogged down in a war. There seems to be no way out. A president's job-approval rating tanks. Iraq, 2006? Yes. It's also Korea, 1952. And in 1952, a war-weary nation grew tired of its president and turned to a retired general to be the next chief executive - giving him the mission of getting the country out of the conflict. This presidential cycle, retired Gen. Wesley Clark is showing up in Iowa, hoping to repeat something of the same feat Dwight Eisenhower accomplished when he succeeded Harry Truman in 1952. While there are parallels, they can't be carried too far. Eisenhower was the political equivalent of a rock star in 1952, the man who organized the successful attack on Nazi Germany. Clark is respected, but he's not achieved the icon status Eisenhower - and many other generals - attained before the country put them in the White House. Clark, a former NATO commander, still has to earn that celebrity status. One way a candidate does that in modern times is by doing well in the Iowa caucuses. And that's done by spending part of a Mother's Day weekend in the state, talking to party activists, media people and labor leaders. Clark made a mistake in not competing in the 2004 caucuses. He admitted that the day he suspended his campaign, and he's not making the same error in the 2008 cycle. He's showing up early to help Iowa Democratic candidates and build a base to use to run again. He spends much of his time answering some variation of the question: What should we do to get out of Iraq? "You'll not get an 'A' out of this," he said in an interview. "You might get an 'F.' If you're lucky, you'll get a 'D+.' The failure will come if you just get mad and pull out - just say 'That's it. You people are fighting; we're leaving.' If you do that, they'll fight even more." Instead, he said, the United States must now try to hold the country together; not let it become a haven for terrorists, and prevent any other single country in the region from dominating it. Also, the United States has to work to let people "lead some semblance of normal life," help put a government in place, get U.S. troops off the streets and reduce the U.S. troop presence. The United States also must expand its diplomatic efforts in the region and make clear it seeks "no permanent presence" of troops in the area. Also, it should work to establish a government, bolster the economy and improve security. "You'll be left with an Iraq that is a lot more Islamist than before and anti-American. It's not a very pretty outcome, but that's the absolute best you can hope for," he said. So is this the program that makes Clark president? It's not a grabber like Ike's "I will go to Korea" line. Also, the Bush administration is already trying to execute some of it. And there are a lot of angry Democratic activists who want to leave immediately and won't like hearing candidates say we have to remain awhile longer. But as a decorated military leader, Clark has a credibility on war and national security that none of the other potential candidates has. That will be important to voters as the country elects its first new president since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. (He takes slight jabs at the other potential candidates, many of whom voted for the war, by saying "a lot of the Democratic leadership has also admitted their mistakes.") Also, Democrats may finally be learning that the nation's mainstream voters just aren't going to elect a president near the pacifist end of the political spectrum. Democrats have rarely won the White House unless they nominated candidates who were seen as strong on national-defense questions. That's what they thought they were doing when they nominated John Kerry in 2004. Democrats looking to take back the White House in 2008 need to consider the lessons Eisenhower and the Republicans taught them in back 1952.