The Defining Global Conflicts Of Our Times...

In These Times with Rabbi Ammi Hirsch: Wesley K. Clark

Judaism despises war.

Overwhelmingly, our heroes are scholars, teachers, philosophers, poets... yet we are not pacifists. There are occasions when the refusal to use force is not only unwise but immoral.

I spend a lot of time with military officers and I am constantly amazed that it is the most senior, the most battle-hardened — the warriors who have performed supreme acts of heroism — who are often the most infused with democratic and humanitarian values.

Wesley K. Clark spent 34 years in the U.S. Army. During a patrol in Vietnam, he was shot four times but he continued commanding his unit until they prevailed against the enemy. For his valor he was awarded the Bronze and Silver Star; for his injuries, the Purple Heart. He retired as a four-star general, the supreme allied commander of NATO's forces in Europe.

But more than just a brave warrior and a brilliant strategist, he's also an author, a Rhodes Scholar and a graduate of Oxford University, where he studied philosophy, politics and economics. And so Gen. Clark may be uniquely qualified to help us understand the defining global conflicts of our times...

I hope you'll tune in and join me for this intimate conversation wherever you get your podcasts.

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