Reply #7: In Clark's case his specific training and talents are an advantage [View All]

[Tom Rinaldo]

I question one line of yours, the one about the "military mind". Clark does not have what most would assume to be a typical "military mind" on the one hand, and on the other there are many attributes to a sophisticated "military mind" that have value in dealing with a complex set of circumstances in a crisis or near crisis situation. Strategy is a matter of life and death for military planning, it is not something that can be fudged with good rhetoric. A skilled flag officer can not afford to be blinded by narrow ideology. They are less likely to fall for some rosy scenario, like Iraq citizens throwing flowers at their liberators, than their politically driven civilian counterparts might be, because a military planner has to deal with what is likely to be rather than what they "believe" it should be.