Clark: More Friends Needed

September 12, 2006
By SHELLEY HANSON | The Intelligencer & Wheeling News Register

BETHANY - Retired Gen. Wesley Clark believes the key to winning the war in Iraq is to develop strategic relationships with other governments in the region.

Clark spoke on the Bethany College campus Monday about Iraq, the war on terror and the history and rise of Osama bin Laden on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The strategic relationships, he said, would allow governments to work together to solve problems such as global health issues or even global warming. While he believes a military presence will remain a necessity for the foreseeable future in the Middle East, Clark said the United States can learn to work with governments there without changing them or forcing a U.S.-style democracy upon them. He noted Iraq likely will not support a western-style democracy, as there are too many different tribes of people with their own ideas about the country’s future.

“We need to make more friends than enemies in the world,” Clark said.

When it comes to conflicts, military action should always be a last resort, he said. He noted, however, the United States should do everything it can to stop people from teaching others to hate the U.S.

Clark provides Sept. 11 perspective

September 12, 2006
By JONATHAN FREI | Staff Writer | The Herald-Star

BETHANY — Retired four-star Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who served as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s supreme allied commander in Europe, spoke Monday at Bethany College’s Old Main to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The Bethany College Student Activities Council, Student Programming Board and Student Government Association sponsored Clark’s visit, and more than 300 people gathered to hear the general speak about the events that led up the Sept. 11 attacks, successes and failures of the United States in recent international conflicts, the world terror scope and U.S. security.

“What a day to be here, on Sept. 11, five years after that fateful morning,” said Clark. “What happened that day? Why did it happen? It’s a story of murder, revenge. I want to tell the story from non-partisan perspective. I want to talk from the basis of professional knowledge. Consider me a doctor of strategy.”

He said the real beginning of the events that led up the Sept. 11 attacks was around 1980 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with 100,000 troops during the Cold War.

“They don’t like foreigners. They don’t like to be invaded. These are people, like people anywhere, who like to be with their own kind,” Clark said.

He said the United States “helped create a resistance movement. We created for the Soviets a ‘Vietnam.’”

The Soviets were leaving by 1988, he said. “They had been defeated by tribesmen” with training, money and Stinger missiles to shoot down helicopters provided by the United States and Saudi Arabia, Clark said.

First Person Account: Remembering September 11 with Wes Clark

September 12, 2006
By Susan ClevelandOH | Clark Community Network

I listened to the latest ClarkCast - Thoughts on 9/11 - this morning. Great stuff. Really great stuff.

I got the longer and more dynamic (read that: stellar, mindblowing, electrifying) version of the those remarks last night, live and in person, at Bethany College in WV.

We were running a little late and walked into the packed hall just as the General was beginning to speak, so I didn't try to take notes. I'm more of a watch and listen person anyway--I know, old fashioned of me in this new century. Truth is, I'm an idiot when it comes to technological things like filming, recording, and even taking pictures. So I'll give you the essence of my recollection of what he said.

First Person Account: General Clark at Bethany College

September 12, 2006
By Gordon Suber | Clark Community Network

Founded in 1840, Bethany College, a four-year private liberal arts school affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), has a long tradition of bringing people from the highest levels of American political discourse to their campus, Sam Vuchenich, the affable campus leader, and head of student activities, told me.

On September 11, 2006, General Wesley K. Clark delivered a lecture to more than 300 students, faculty, and townspeople in Bethany, West Virginia.

Vuchenich related that student organizations wanted to bring someone to campus who could put meaning into the fifth anniversary of 9/11.