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GEN. Wesley Clark came to Staten Island and challenged members of Wagner College’s Class of 2006 to improve their country during their working lives.

Clark urged the new graduates to take one last look from the Grymes Hill campus at the marred New York City skyline across the harbor before departing to their 40 states and 11 nations of origin.

“I don’t know about you, but I can't look across that skyline there without realizing that something's missing,” Clark said.

Clark, an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 2004 sounded a bit like he was campaigning.

While lauding the U.S. response against the Taliban after 9/l1 and saying our troops have performed “brilliantly” in the field, the four-star general and former NATO commander blasted the current administration’s invasion of Iraq.

“We found no weapons of mass destruction. Things haven’t gone as well as they
should have,” he began. “Osama Bin Laden and his No. 2 man, Ayman Al-Zawahiri. remain on the loose. “Iraq remains racked by violence and is proving to be a major training ground for terrorists. First North Korea and now Iraq are defying U.S. calls to halt their nuclear weapons programs,” he concluded.

He then told the Wagner grads of the increase in terrorism around the world as “other angry resentful people follow Bin Laden’s example.”

Citing U.S. Colonial history, Clark reminded students the colonists nearly lost their battle against an earlier aggressor some 230 years ago, right in and around New York Harbor -but they stood the course.

“I am convinced that with the right leadership we have the will and the means to deal with the challenges we face today, Clark said.

Clark received an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree during the proceedings Friday.
Also honored at the college’s ll9th graduation were philanthropist Eugene Lang, the Rev. Addie Butler of the Philadelphia Theological Institute and Wagner Trustee Fred Lange.