Reply #11: One thing you left out

[Jai4WKC08]

Wes Clark works his ass off. All the time. Whatever it takes.

I won't say a lot of people have the intelligence to be #1 at West Point (or any first class school), or a Rhodes Scholar, but there are more who have the raw talent than are willing or able to put in the work it takes. It's telling that WKC's major at Oxford was a three-year program and he finished it in two because the Army wouldn't give him more time. He could have taken an easier program, but he accepted the challenge because he wanted to study philosophy, economics, and politics.

Clark thrives on work and probably wouldn't know how to live without it. But it's more than that too. The reason Clark got a Silver Star was because AFTER he was shot four times, none of them superficial, he was still commanding his company, laying return fire, shouting out orders to move up his reserve platoon, saving the lives of the lead elements caught in the ambush. If you have ever received a severe physical trauma, you know how hard it is to keep your head together and continue to function. Granted adrenalin is a factor, but the physiological processes as the body goes into shock overwhelm most people. Wes Clark has some sort of mental steeliness that most people just aren't capable of. Call it strength of will, mental discipline, confidence, determination, physical courage... it's all of those, and something else. It's more than most of us even know is possible, because for most of us, it isn't.