Most candidates spend years of their lives devoted to little more than running for president.
A few care more about putting in the kind of preparation it takes to be a good president.
Like Wes Clark.
Clark has been busy educating himself on the Middle East, as well as building relationships with leaders in the region. He was a featured speaker at a December 2006 conference in Dubai entitled "Creating Opportunity from Change." The conference that begins today is called "Enhancing the Middle East's Economic Future."
These are some of the people who also attended the December conference:
the prime minister of Egypt
the minister of finance of Syria
the minister of foreign affairs of Bahrain
the director of the technical cooperation unit of Lebanon
a former minister of finance of Palestine
a minister of state from UAE
an advisor to the king of Jordan
In the current economic conference, Clark will be one of two speakers to offer opening remarks at the dinner this evening.
He will moderate a panel tomorrow at 9 am on the topic "The Asian Powers and Gulf Security."
The speakers on the panel include
the former Chinese ambassador to Lebanon
a national security advisor to the prime minister of Japan
a former Indian foreign minister and Sheikh Al-Thani
At 7:15 pm, he will speak on a panel entitled, "Regional Security: Iran, the United States and the Middle East."
Last night he gave a lecture at the Democratic Club in Qatar covered by The Peninsula, Qatar's Leading English Daily. Here is the text.
US General and former presidential candidate Wesley Clark offered a lecture last night to a crowd of around 200 at the Diplomatic Club. The speech, sponsored by the Department of the Faculty at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, was entitled ‘The Front Lines of International Economics'.
In his speech, Clark used his background in the US military, as well as his experience as an investment banker, to offer his predictions for the future of the global economic markets.
"Qatar is the front line of international economics," Clark said. Having spent time in many of the world's fastest-growing economies, he described how the future global leaders will be resource economies instead of manufacturing economies.
Clark did point out, however, that the growth of economies like Qatar's will require a strong security arrangement. In discussing the war in Iraq, Clark called the invasion unnecessary. When questioned, on the future of Iran, he stressed the importance of diplomacy in resolving the situation. "Ideas are the most powerful thing in the world," he said. "But people have to see that there is a common interest. We have to find a common vision that makes Iran, America and the region better off."
Georgetown University student Yancee Hardy was pleased with Clark's comments. "It was refreshing to hear such optimism for the region and the world. His view of Qatar's chance to be a stakeholder on the world stage generates a lot of hope."
During 34 years of service in the US Army, Clark rose to the rank of four-star general as Nato's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. In his final military command, General Clark commanded Operation Allied Force, Nato's first major combat action, which saved 1.5 million Albanians from ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, and he was responsible for the peacekeeping operation in Bosnia.
Isn't this the kind of person you want to be president?