Wesley Clark to Address Military Reporters

By: Joe Strupp Retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark, who is expected to announce his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday, will be the keynote speaker at the 2nd annual Military Reporters & Editors (MRE) Conference in suburban Washington next month.

Clark is expected to discuss the Bush administration's war in Iraq, the impact of embedding reporters with coalition forces, and the occupation that has followed the conflict in his Oct. 3 speech, MRE officials said in a statement Tuesday.

"General Clark has served with distinction in the U.S. military from Vietnam through Kosovo," said MRE President James G. Wright, assistant managing editor of the Albany, N.Y., Times Union. "We're fortunate to have a general officer of his caliber and experience share his knowledge and insight about modern conflict -- including the media's role in covering war."

A resident of Little Rock, Ark., Clark rose to prominence as NATO's supreme allied commander during the 78-day Kosovo air war. He served as commander-in-chief of the U.S. European Command from 1997 through May 2000, and led "Operation Allied Force," NATO's first major combat action. He later wrote the bestseller, Waging Modern War: Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Future of Combat.

Clark spent 34 years in the Army in a variety of staff and command positions before heading NATO. He served as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Southern Command in Panama, where he was responsible for the direction of U.S. military activities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Before that, Clark was director for Strategic Plans and Policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a job that involved worldwide U.S. military strategic planning.

In recent months, several draft Wesley Clark groups have formed, urging the military veteran to jump into the nine-person Democratic primary field. Reports Tuesday all but confirmed his plans to join the campaign during a scheduled address on Wednesday.

MRE, which organized two years ago, has lobbied the Pentagon for better media access to the military and plans to study the impact of embedding reporters in Iraq on both the armed forces and the nation in its Oct. 2-4 conference at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Crystal City, Va. The conference will feature 15 panels on a variety of topics related to military coverage. Panelists will include some four-dozen print and broadcast journalists, current and former Pentagon officials, and experts on the military and Department of Defense. Among the scheduled panels are how-to sessions aimed at helping print and broadcast journalists to better cover military activities on the home front, investigate the military and improve writing and photography.

"We expect to have the largest gathering of journalists who covered the war in Iraq together in one place since the end of formal hostilities, but that conflict and the Pentagon's embed program are only a part of this conference," said Dave Moniz, MRE vice president and Pentagon correspondent for USA Today. "Any journalist, from a beginner to a seasoned veteran on the military beat, will be able to take away something they can use to improve their coverage of military and defense issues."

Clark will speak at a 12:30 luncheon on Oct. 3. Last year, the conference was keynoted by Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward.

For more information, visit militaryreporters.org.