On President Bush's speech
Clark posted the following entry to his blog on September 15, 2005
***
First of all I am grateful that the President spoke to the nation this evening. I wish it had been sooner to rally the American people. I wish he acted with the kind of leadership, foresight, inspiration, and attention to detail at a time when lives could have been saved and the recovery far easier.
I appreciate ideas like empowerment zones, training, relocation, and urban homesteads, but the devil is in the details. Who benefits, and who decides who benefits? The rumors are rampant. "Opportunity of a lifetime." "New and better New Orleans." I have no doubt there will be plenty of private money for rebuilding. The wealthy are awash in capital, but I would hope the federal government will ensure that the rebuilding of New Orleans favors the New Orleaneans that want their homes, their lives, and their city back.
And I think we all need to remember that as tragic as the situation in New Orleans is, there are tens of thousands that lost their property and lives along the Gulf Coast. In many respects these small communities need far more because they had less of a municipal framework for disaster to begin with.
The President never mentioned how much all of this will cost, but clearly it will run into the tens of billions -- perhaps as much as we spent in the entire war in Iraq over the last three years. And of course from across America, there will be an immediate clamor to accelerate the withdrawal from Iraq.
For the good of the country, I hope we can keep these two issues separate. As I have said previously, a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq would be a massive defeat for America as well as our friends and allies in the region, ultimately increasing the dangers America will face in the years ahead. More to come.
-Wes
