Retired Gen. John Shalikashvili endorses Kerry

By David Postman
Seattle Times chief political reporter

AMY SANCETTA / AP The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. John Shalikashvili, tells delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Boston yesterday that he supports Sen. John Kerry for president.

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"But I do not stand here as a political figure," Shalikashvili told the delegates. "Rather, I am here as an old soldier and a new Democrat."

He's a new Democrat, as opposed to the moderate New Democrat, because as a career soldier he didn't involve himself in politics. But in an interview last night before his speech, Shalikashvili said he recently became convinced it was time to lend his name, expertise and essentially his reputation as a military leader to the Massachusetts Democrat's presidential bid.

"Considering the times we are living in and the dangers we are facing in this post-9/11 world, John Kerry is by far the best choice for the security of America," he said.

Shalikashvili's political emergence also gives the Puget Sound its highest-profile player at the convention. In retirement, the general moved to Steilacoom, Pierce County, in 1998. He served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military's highest-ranking officer, under President Clinton.

He spoke last night to a packed hall before the event turned to vice-presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards and his family.

While it was Shalikashvili's first public political event, he grew up watching American politics and how the United States shaped the world.

He watched from Poland, where he was born.

"I certainly thought of America as a land of boundless opportunity. That it is a beacon of hope and freedom that it represents to the rest of the world," he said.

He thought of presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower as giants who believed "we are not alone in the world, that we have a responsibility to lead, not to bully."

As a young boy he lived through the Nazi occupation of Poland and saw his hometown destroyed in the 1944 Warsaw uprising.
 
Shalikashvili, 68, came to the United States in 1952 when he was 16. He enlisted in the Army six years later.

He served in Vietnam and rose to be Supreme Allied Commander Europe under President George H.W. Bush. At the end of the first Gulf War, he was in charge of the Kurdish relief operation in Iraq.

Shalikashvili's speech covered only national security. He is now an informal adviser to the candidate and campaign, and says he will talk only about those issues. But he sounds like a committed Democrat.

"The other side has been working very hard to paint the impression that Democrats in general and John Kerry in particular would not be good stewards of our national security," he said in the interview.

"I thought it important, having spent 39 years wearing our country's uniform, to stand up in front of the convention and stand up in front of the nation and tell them that there are people like me who disagree with that false premise."

David Postman: 360-943-9882 or dpostman@seattletimes.com