Clark: " Base closings will isolate military"

[montana500]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7856125/


Clark says base closings
will isolate military
‘Super bases’ disconnect military,
civilians, former general says
Former U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, seen in an April file photo, said on Saturday that the Pentagon's plan to centralize military installations would hit small towns the hardest.
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:24 p.m. ET May 14, 2005LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark said Saturday that the Pentagon’s plan to close military bases around the country and reorganize troops will isolate the military from the American people and the rest of the world.

[Bluebear]

1. Maybe that's the idea.

Bush and Rumsfeld usually have a deeper meaning to what they do.

[MADem]

2. Yep. Consolidate, and separate. Us agin' Them. You are either with us,

...or agin' us.

Why should his attempted management of the military be any different from his mismanagement of the nation?

It will only work so long as the Forces are comprised of AVF personnel. The minute you throw a draft into that mix, all bets are off.

[Adelante]

3. Heh - Bolton's "a bully"

Clark: Bolton a ‘bully’

Clark also voiced his concerns about Bush’s nomination of John Bolton to United Nations ambassador, calling Bolton “somewhat of a bully.”

“He’s going to have a very tough time in the United Nations,” Clark said. “When you come in with that much overhang, with all this reputation against you, it’s that much more difficult. And all that’s known in the United Nations.

“Personally, I don’t like bullies,” he added. “Just because you outrank somebody doesn’t mean you don’t respect them and their judgment.”

Bush’s nomination of Bolton was voted out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday but is unlikely to come before the full Senate before the end of May.

[Clark2008]

10. And I'm betting that Clark knows how to stand up to bullies!

Clark always says the correct thing at the correct time. I wish he'd get wider coverage.
But, that'd be asking too much of the corporate media, wouldn't it?

[kliljedahl]

4. Also we won't need them here

because they plan on having the majority of troops overseas for years liberatin' & bringin' Freedumb®


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[FreedomAngel82]

22. Probably

I still think it's ridiculous how they're doing this and in a time of war. They are definietly up to something. I'm willing to bet it's along side what Clark said. Something to do with reorganizing the troops.

[FloridaPat]

5. In case of a general uprising here when * declares himself permanent

president, it will be to his benefit to have the military isolated so they can protect * against their parents, relatives and teachers.

[lala_rawraw]

7. No, FEMA has its own troops

[kevsand]

23. Is that for real?

And if so, why does it make my Spidey-sense tingle?

Who are they? How many? Where? And what are they authorized to do? I thought that the National Guard was supposed to be frontline for disasters. Now you've got me wondering...

[CottonBear]

6. Clark is right. They are trying to separate blue and red,

right and left, poor and rich, black and white, white and hispanic, educated and high school grads..

[Erika]

8. On the same subject but a little different

The top 15 managers of the National Inter agency Fire control center stationed in Idaho, under control of the BLM, has been told to relocate to Washington D.C. Bush wants tighter D.C. control. Butch Otter, a GOP Idaho rep says that Washington D.C. has it wrong. The only problem is the drought here, not local control. He is also one of the conservatives who fight parts of the Patriot Act.

It looks like Bush is centralizing control of all government operations in D.C.

[Clark2008]

11. I would say Bush is paranoid, but he's probably right:

The way he's running, erm, ruining, the country, the people may just take up arms and take over DC in the near future.

[mikehiggins]

9. Damn that Wesley Clark

He keeps making sense. No wonder the media never liked him.

Leave it to him to point out the long term danger in isolating the military from the genpop. The American tradition of the "citizen soldier" is rapidly giving way to the Imperial Legions of the New Rome.

Of course, the Bush family has managed to avoid haging the qualified guys like Julius and Octavian in charge and got right to the dregs.

[Crunchy Frog]

14. That's what they did in China

and it was how they were able to bring in troops who were willing to slaughter the demonstrators in Tianenmen Square. The first bunch of soldiers they brought in were too local and too integrated with the they were expected to crush, and were therefore fairly ineffectual.

They finally brought in hardcore soldiers who had been kept and trained in complete isolation from the rest of Chinese society. They might just as well have been invading a foreign country, and acted as if they were.

It's not inconcievable that the same thing could happen here, and it looks like the groundwork is being laid to enable such a thing to happen.

[Adelante]

16. He always sees the big picture, doesn't he?

Never the easy, simple view, but the most thorough and wide view, and then straight home to the truth of the matter.

[kodi]

19. i refer to the volunteer military as the Praetorian Guard

and clark is worried that the military will become isolated from the general population, have little investment in civilian society, thereby making it easier to have the military move against the general population if it is ordered to do so.

[sadiesworld]

12. More apt to turn on their fellow citizens when ordered to do so?

Scary thought.

[Donna Zen]

13. In the beginning...

During the summer, when rumors of these base closings and military realignment first surfaced, Clark pointed out that the military is made up of families and thus, is not an army of empire. These megabases will change that by separating families for long stretches and resulting in frayed relationships. Oh but, Rummy will have his empire.

Thank you Wes.

ps He has a message for us this evening: keep the faith.

[Disturbed]

15. The Bush Junta will be recruiting troops from...

the 3rd world and setting more bases out of Amerika.

[Sparkly]

17. Also on Yahoo now.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050515/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/base_closings_clark

[Adelante]

18. I saw it on the front page this morning

I was wondering if he might be on one of the talk shows this morning about this? I don't have a TV, but I like to hear about it.

[kevsand]

20. This issue is set up to be win-win

for the Repubs. There's been a lot of talk in other threads about how this is an overall shift of the military to red states for political reasons, or how some of the proposed base closings are straw men that will be "saved" by their Repub congressmen at the eleventh hour, or how the troops are going to be in a state of perpetual deployment overseas anyway so we don't need stateside bases as much.

I think there are elements of truth in all of that, but I think that a lot of this is simply something that Rumsfeld really wants to do anyway. He and Cheney have always advocated for weapons instead of personnel, and have consistently reduced troop strengths and base footprints on the road to their "21st century" military. So whichever way it goes, some Repub somewhere gets what they want.

The sociological effects that Clark correctly points out would never occur to these guys, nor would they even care if it did. I don't suspect (yet) that they are considering abandoning posse comitatus, but their known agendas are sufficiently harmful in and of themselves.

[Tom Rinaldo]

21. We are fortunate about one thing

I will point out to any who so far failed to fully appreciate it the significant advantage it gives the Democratic Party to have a celebrated high ranking former military commander like Clark now firmly in the front ranks of the Democratic Party. I suppose some of that advantage comes simply with the title, Four Star General, which adds heft to Clark's opinions. In that case we are doubly fortunate that Wes Clark is also a deep thinker who will speak to the larger social implications of a plan like this, much more so than your average General. So I will make this informational plug. Visit his web site some time if you have not already. (there is a running blog there also which I just posted on which is why I am thinking of it now): http://www.securingamerica.com/?q=node/149#comment-641

[Clark2008]

24. The story has made it to Yahoo.

Please go rate it up.
The Freeptards have been there in force:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/base_closings_clark