I saw this posted over at CCN:
He entered the room very unobtrusively, and there was a nice opportunity to meet him informally before the event began. He looked very good and relaxed.
When it came time for him to speak he got a wonderful ovation. All the speakers who had preceeded him had spoken of him with great admiration and respect, and the gentleman who introduced him did an admirable job of covering the General's impressive record of service to this Country and many of his personal achievements as well.
A Flag Day dinner is a natural for the General. After doing all the appropriate thankyous to his hosts he started with the flag as a theme, and talked about how it belongs to all of us not to just the Republicans. It was very moving as he spoke of the many roles of the flag in our lives, how we are perhaps the only nation whose national Anthem is about our flag,how we grew up pledging allegiance to it, how moved he was the first time he said the Pledge in uniform, how it flies in such diverse locations as schools, political locales, and sporting events.... and lastly how we honor our military dead by draping their coffins with it. I am not doing this justice at all...I can only tell you that it moved me to tears and got a very large ovation.
He went on to touch on many areas and gave us a very interesting history lesson to back up his theory of how we got where we are today. Saying basically the end of the Cold War left America in need of a new unifying principle, a new way of interacting in the world and a new way of achieving our aims both at home and abroad. He said 9/11 caught us in this unsettled period of transition, and the current administration capitalized on the country's fear and transitional state to create the situation we find ourselves in today.
He spoke of our international crisis and our domestic issues as well. I wish I could remember all the details, but I am sure the other bloggers present will be filing their reports too. He did not just throw out a lot of generalizations (no pun intended) or platitudes. He offered specific ideas about what he thought needed to be done, and received many ovations.
He ended by saying we need to put aside partisanship and get some leadership that can bring us together as a Nation, build on the things we all have in common, and lead us into the next new age for America. As we all rose in our last standing ovation of the evening I shouted out "We need You!!", but I don't think he could have heard me over the crowd.
If you are thinking this sounded a bit like a great campaign speech.... all of us there certainly thought so! 2008 is a ways off, but now is the time to be laying the groundwork, and I hope that was what I was witnessing tonight.
When my daughter and I had the opportunity to shake his hand at the beginning of the evening, I told the General that 2008 would be the first time my daughter would be able to vote in a Presidential election, so he had to run and give her a great man to vote for. I do believe he had a twinkle in his eye as he thanked us.
http://pinb.forclark.com/story/2005/6/12/223610/551I am absolutely thrilled that Clark stated so plainly how the Bush administration took advantage of an unsettled period of transition and 9/11 to promote their own radical agenda...the Downing Street memo confirms this, Clark's conversations at the Pentagon in the weeks following 9/11 confirm this, but I have never seen it put so plainly.
Go Wes!
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