Oh, What Does He Know?

“President Bush has a vision that the U.S. should be the first to strike and will never be militarily challenged again,” Clark said. “It’s an incomplete vision. Those of us who have fought in wars know you don’t make friends when you use weapons.”

[…]

Clark said hatred toward the United States may have originated in the 1980s with the end of the Cold War and fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

“We seized the opportunity and took advantage of free trade and open markets,” Clark said. “We built tremendous prosperity, but we didn’t understand the risks we were taking over our economy, our environment and our lives.”

Clark said American Muslims who believe in peace and tolerance should be encouraged to help persuade extremists that American democracy does not threaten their way of life.

Clark commended the president’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks and the war on terrorism that followed. But, he said, the United States responded out of fear, which is foreign to Americans.

Clark said America’s mission in Iraq should include the best interest of all nations.

“When you use force and you talk about using force, it should be used as your last, last, last resort,” Clark said. “You have to use it with a lot of prayer because a lot of innocent people are going to get hurt.”

I continue to be impressed with Wesley Clark. It’s difficult to assess when I don’t know his positions of a wide variety of issues, but he sounds eminently reasonable to me on issues of war and peace. All things being equal, I think he would be a dynamite addition to the ticket.