Wesley Clark is progressive by way of the military meritocracy

[retyred]

General Interest
Wesley Clark could be a welcome addition to the Democratic field.
http://www.prospect.org/webfeatures/2003/08/kuttner-r-08-28.html

Wesley Clark has told associates that he will decide in the next few weeks whether to declare for president. If he does, it would transform the race. Call me star-struck, but he'd instantly be among the top-tier.

Clark, in case you've been on sabbatical in New Zealand, is all over the talk shows. He's the former NATO supreme commander who headed operations in Kosovo, a Rhodes Scholar who graduated first in his class at West Point, and a Vietnam vet with several combat medals including a purple heart.

He has been a tough critic of the Bush foreign policy, including the Iraq war. His domestic positions are not as fully fashioned, but he'd repeal Bush's tax cuts and revisit the so-called Patriot Act.

More interestingly, Clark is progressive on domestic issues by way of his military background. Though it is very much a hierarchy, the military is also the most egalitarian island in this unequal society.

<snip>

EDITED BY ADMIN FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS


Retyred IN FLA.

[Tinoire]

1. I have a real problem

with this line (among others but this one really gets to me):

"Clark is progressive on domestic issues by way of his military background. Though it is very much a hierarchy, the military is also the most egalitarian island in this unequal society.

How are they defining egalitarian? Has the writer even been in the military? Has the writer ever been out in the field with the military?

How can anyone consider the military an 'egalitarian island in this unequal society" when so many married soldiers have to get food stamps to feed their families? Egalitarian when soldiers are shoved 3/4 to a room in crowded barracks? Egalitarian when places like Fort Carson use tax-payer money to build officer homes with heated floors in the marbled bathrooms and young soldiers can barely afford to pay for a squalid apartment for their families? What is so egalitarian about a system where officers and enlisted personnel aren't allowed to "fraternize"?

The military also has America's most comprehensive child care system. This is mostly because enlisted pay is so low that most wives have to work to supplement that egalitarian pay.

everyone has health care. OMG. I will take my employers health care plan over the army's any day. What the military has is no more than a decent HMO with someone else picking up the bill. There's no option for PPO though. You take that HMO with all its draw-backs and pray to God that doctor was paying attention in med school because there is no recourse if he messes up. Nice little factoid that while there are fine physicians in the military, there are also many who took refuge there because they can't get sued and the good old boy system protects them to the fullest.

I am really confused. I spent 20 years in the military and, trust me, I missed all this egalitarianism.

[Pepperbelly]

2. I think that ...

the details about which you complain are not details that could possibly be affected by a general but is instead the sole purview of politicians.

The point is that everyone should have health care, child care; and Wesley recognizes this fact. However, since he is not a career pol, he is not resrtricted to prior positions or to specific idelogy to solve those problems.

I know what Dean has proposed in health care and while it would probably ... note PROBABLY be an improvement, law of unintended consequences notwithstanding, it is a long way from what we need.

Thusfar, only Braun and Kucinich have had the courage to tell the truth. I don't mean to necessarily propose it but to even tell it: until the profits in the health care system is removed, the system will continue to gimp along, costing far too much and leaving many sans care.

I do not know what Wesley will propose IF anything because the hard fact is that with the damage that Bush has done to our nation, fixing just that is going to have to be a priority. Until the damage Whistle-ass wrought is repaired, EVERY candidate's health care proposals are fraudulent.

[Tinoire]

5. No. They could be

Colonel John J Burns... When he showed up at my unit I immediately went to see him about the conditions in the barracks. Barracks in which I didn't even live and presented my concerns for the quality of life of the soldiers. He immediately made the small but important changes that didn't cost money (stupid visitation laws, ridiculous inspections that had gone too far, too many people in a room based on rank (not egalitarian that at all)) and then went on to make sure that SOME of the money went to taking care of soldiers.

Generals could do even more than that Colonel did.

Other than that, I agree with everything in your post. Even with "since he is not a career pol, he is not resrtricted to prior positions or to specific idelogy to solve those problems".

But he's going to have to address this and other issues in depth before people like me could even begin to consider him (at which point I hear you breath a huge sigh of relief knowing that most people are not as bad me ;)).

One BIG black mark for me is Dean's stance on Israel/Palestine. There are so many holes in it that every single one of Sharon's tanks could drive right through but when I bring this up here or elsewhere, moral, sincere, civic-minded people tell me not to worry about it because he's smart enough to figure everything out when he gets there. With Clark's stance it's much worse because I don't even know what it is. Never again will I be able to trust a politician just based on his word of what he would do.

[Pepperbelly]

14. the really big ones ...

medical care and pay, are strictly in the hands of the politicians. Quality of life at the base can be marginally affected by the C.O. I didn't do twenty years but only four on active and four on reserve but I do know that what the C.O. affects is the command attitude toward the troops and that has a pretty substantial bearing on the quality of life.

[retyred]

3. I know zilch about the military medical

but it would appear that even a paid HMO policy is better than the millions of people w/out even that measure of insurance.

As "pepperbelly" stated, Clark recognizes that there are too many with no health care at all and knows that changes need to be implmented to rectify that, and Clark, not being a politician would enter the White House w/out influenced baggage and just might produce a better plan of dealing with the current health care crisis.

I'm lucky to have PPO insurance thru work but at a cost of $300+ a month, and if I was thrown into a situation where I had no insurance, the military's HMO would look pretty good.

I don't think any of these guys have all the answers but I think it's time that a non politician was put in charge, at least Clark would come in relatively clean slated.


Retyred IN FLA.

[Tinoire]

6. It's ranges from better than nothing - good depending on where & who

Yes, "even a paid HMO policy is better than the millions of people w/out even that measure of insurance" but it is still not good enough for all the money we pump into the system.

How can we bank one "might produce a better plan of dealing with the current health care crisis? What if he doesn't (or any other candidate), might not?

300+ a month? That's OBSCENE when you consider what you pay in taxes and so many Europeans get it for free.

Thanks for your input. It was interesting and I don't mean to be unkind but why would anyone trust a blank slate with nothing written on it when there are 9 others up for examination and most are already an improvement on what we have now?

[retyred]

10. Being an improvement

over what we have now is not a great endorsement for any of the nine by itself, and I'm not on the Clark band wagon just yet but from what I 've read about him so far, I like and maybe once he enters the fray if he does, I just may commit.

As I said, I like the idea of having an unencumbered candidate as opposed to what we've had with all the political interest baggage they've brought with them.

Right now all I hear is the same "promises" I've heard before from the same hands out to some special interest group pols, it's time for a change.


Retyred IN FLA.

[madfloridian]

8. I can help on the military medical a little.

Here is an example. In our city of almost 100,000, the wife of a soldier in Iraq was having a baby. She was living with her parents instead of near MacDill.

She had Tricare through the service. Not one single obstetrician in this excellent city for medical care (two major hospitals) would see her. Not one. She had to drive 40 miles away for her prenatal care.

The baby was delivered. She came back to her parent's home here. Not one single doctor would be her pediatrician. They refuse to take Tricare it pays so badly.

Our local paper took up her cause, and when the baby was about a month old a doctor agreed to see her and absorb the rest of the cost.

[Mz Pip]

4. In a perfect world...

<< What the military has is no more than a decent HMO with someone else picking up the bill.>>

That may be a whole lot better than 40 million people in this country have now. Isn't that what single payer health care is all about? A decent HMO with someone else picking up the bill? Any of us with medical coverage through our employers are at the mercy of our MDs and the bureaucracy that maintains it. Where is it that Clark has said that health care must be administered exactly like it is in the military - no lawsuits allowed?

You are projecting your dislike of Clark in assuming whatever universal health care plan he may advocate would include no recourse for those covered. Quite a stretch.

MzPip
:dem:

[Tinoire]

7. I am not saying that Clark would disallow lawsuits

I was explaining how it currently works in the military. There was no stretch there- just pointing out that the military system is not that great.

[madfloridian]

9. Retyred, what positions (jobs) does Clark hold now?

Is he a consultant with companies or what. I am just trying to clarify if he is maybe more establishment than we realize. Now don't jump down my throat, I am sincere.

I am totally open-minded about the candidates, I just see red when bashing is going on.

What I am trying to find out is what he is doing now.

[retyred]

11. He's chairman and CEO of Wesley K. Clark & Associates

a business services and development firm (?)

****************

Retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark, who led NATO's 1999 campaign in Serbia and is now a military analyst for CNN, was named chairman of the board yesterday by WaveCrest Laboratories LLC, a three-year-old Dulles technology company that is developing a new kind of electric motor.

"They asked for some strategic assistance, and that's what I do," Clark said. Aside from his television duties, Clark is chairman and chief executive of Wesley K. Clark & Associates, a business consultancy based in Little Rock, and serves on the boards of directors of Messer-Griesheim, Acxiom Corp. and Sirva Corp.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A6587-2003Apr21

**********************

I've read what appears to be a bio of sorts at: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Clark and like what I read.



Retyred IN FLA.

[newyawker99]

12. retyred

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NYer99
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[quam]

13. Announcement?

I read he planned to make an 'announcement' on Labor Day. Has someone heard whether this remains the case? If so, where? when? Hopefully not on Leno.