Here are snippets of Weasely Clark's speeches when he ran for president. I scanned through them looking for references he made to his own military service. Seems then he considered his military experience highly revelent and one of his most important qualifications. All the quotes come from his own website: http://www.clark04.com/speeches/042/
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Senator Kerry, it is with great pride that I stand here and say, "The Army's come on board."
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Both John (Kerry) and I served in Vietnam - and know what it is to be tested on the battlefield, fighting for your country.
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I'd like to begin this afternoon by thanking all the foot soldiers in this battle: our terrific staff, our dedicated volunteers, our thousands of loyal supporters. And most of all, those who believed in me long before anyone even knew who I was: the people who drafted me into this race. The thousands who joined together to enlist me to serve.
You have proven what a General can do when he has the greatest troops in the world. And I can't tell you enough how honored and humbled I am by your commitment, your spirit, and your sacrifice. Because of all of you, this has been a cause, as much as it's been a campaign.
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And as a general who spent thirty-four years fighting for my country, here is my pledge: I will do everything I can - everything - to make sure George W. Bush doesn't play politics with national security.
As you know, I have never run for office. I'm just a guy from the heartland, who never had much. I got into this race because I had devoted my life to protecting America's security and preserving our reputation around the world. And this campaign was a way of continuing that service.
In the end, I'm still a soldier, not a politician.
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That's why I'm running for president. I'm part of the solution, not part of the problem. I'm not just another insider. I spent my life in the military, acting and doing - not in the halls of Congress talking and debating.
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I'm part of the solution, not part of the problem. I spent my life in the military, acting and doing - not in the halls of Congress, talking and debating. I call it like I see it and let the chips fall where they may.
I haven't made my career in the halls of Congress, but on bases and battlefields.
I haven't just debated whether to send troops to battle, I've sent them. I haven't just debated whether to go to war, I led it.
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I should tell you up front, I am not a career politician. I haven't spent years holding hearings and cutting deals with high-priced special interests. Four months ago, when I decided to run, the Washington-types tried to warn me off. They told me to leave politics to the politicians - that I was an outsider, just a soldier from the South. Maybe it's because I've never been in politics, but I don't believe that America is run by politicians in Washington. I believe it's run by people like us, in places like this.
And if there's one thing I learned during my thirty-four years in the Army, it's that real leadership comes from acting and doing.
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We didn't have much more when I was in the Army. For more than half of my thirty-four years, I earned less than $50,000 a year.
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That's what we believed in the United States Army. For 34 years, I served with men and women from all backgrounds under one flag: the American flag.
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And I'm leading this campaign the same way I led in the Army.
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34 years ago, when I was a young army captain in Vietnam, I was taken down by enemy fire. I was shot four times - in my hand, my shoulder, and my leg.
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I've spent my life in executive positions - as a doer, not a debater.
I went to West Pont.
I led an infantry company in Vietnam.
I commanded an armored division, helped negotiate peace in Bosnia, and led the military forces of 19 nations in war and peace-keeping in the Balkans.
As a general, I was responsible for the lives of thousands of troops and their families - from fixing potholes on the base to providing schools and health care for their children.
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I've spent my life in executive positions - as a doer, not a debater. I went to West Point. I led an infantry company in Vietnam. I commanded an armored division, helped negotiate peace in Bosnia, and led the military forces of 19 nations in war and peacekeeping in the Balkans.
As a general, I was responsible for the lives of thousands of troops and their families - from fixing potholes on the base to providing schools and health care for their children.
As a retired general, I sat on boards, chaired a startup of a high tech company, and worked as an investment banker.
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A leader who has been on the front lines of battle and in the backrooms of diplomacy.
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I served in the United States Army for thirty-four years. I was on the ground in Vietnam ... head of the Southern Command in Latin America ... and Supreme Allied Commander in Kosovo, where I led the effort to save 1.5 million Kosovar Albanians from ethnic cleansing.
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That's what I brought to the Army during my thirty-four years of service, where I was responsible for the welfare and security of tens of thousands of men, women and children. Where I built coalitions and fought for peace.
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Because I spent 34 years in the United States military fighting for our freedoms, and I'm not going to stop now.
Because in my heart, I'm not a politician, I'm a soldier.
These seventeen quotes come from the first eleven speeches at the link. Since I'm now sick and tired of reading his speeches, I'm going to guess he included at least two or three references to his military career in each speech. Therefore, I declare Wesley Clark a complete hypocrite.
