Wesley Clark in Democratic "Rock the Vote" debate

On Civil Rights: Equal opportunity for homosexuals in armed forces

A: There are gays who serve in the US armed forces, and they do a very good job. But when they acknowledge who they are and their sexual preference, they leave. So I’ve got a very good comfort level with it. I think everybody deserves the right to serve. And when I’m president, I’m going to make sure that we treat every man, woman and child in America with dignity and respect. And that includes the opportunities to serve in the US armed forces

On Civil Rights: “Don’t ask, don’t tell” needs to be reviewed

A: I’ve seen it work in some units, but I get a lot of reports where it doesn’t work. And I think it depends on the service and the unit. It depends, to some extent, on the commander. The policy needs to be reviewed because there are so many indications that it’s not working. You start a review with the presumption that it isn’t. Let the armed forces leadership go back through it and give us a better policy so that every American who desires to serve can.

On Civil Rights: Gays deserve the same rights as everyone else

A: One of my Army friends came to me. He said, “Sir, I’ve got a little bit of trouble with your position on gays in the military.” I said, “Well, let me explain it to you this way. If you had a son or daughter who was gay, would you love them? And he said, ”Well, yes.“ I said, ”And wouldn’t you want them to have the same rights and the same opportunities in life as everybody else?“

On Foreign Policy: Embargoes don’t work in Cuba or other dictatorships

A: When you isolate a country, you strengthen the dictators in it. If you want to change the dictators, you’ve got to open it up so ordinary people in those countries can see what they’re missing in the rest of the world, and gain strength and ideas from everybody else. And they’ll take control of their future. We’re not going to reward Castro, but to make sure that Cubans have a democracy and they have the same rights as everybody else on this planet.

On Homeland Security: Armed forces are better with a volunteer force

A: America’s armed forces need people who want to be there. And I would not reinstate the draft. We believe that the armed forces are better with a volunteer force. And what this country has to understand is that when it puts a foreign policy in place that the American people don’t support, the answer for that is not to reinstitute the draft, but to change the foreign policy, and that’s where we’re headed with Iraq.