Retired general visits campus

Retired U.S. Army General Hugh Shelton visited campus Monday morning and spoke to a crowd assembled in Stewart Theatre.

In an interview after his speech, Shelton said the University “reinforced what value-based leadership is all about.”

On hand for the speech were members of NCSU Army ROTC, members of University Scholars, staff, students and local citizens.

Shelton’s speech was titled, “Military Leadership During a Time of Dramatic Change.”

After his speech, Shelton said the military leaders know who is in charge.

“The military fully recoginises that they are subordinate to civilian leadership,” Shelton said.

Shelton praised NCSU ROTC, calling it “dynomite.”

“The leaders are great role models for those in the program,” he said.

Shelton said whether those in ROTC decide to persue active duty or civilian life, the training the cadets recieve will be with them for the rest of thier life.

He said he thinks the idea of Centenial campus showed great foresight.

Shelton said there are already bonds between some of the companies on Centenial Campus and the military.

“The bonds between corporate companies and the military will lead to even greater things in the future,” he said.

Shelton said newly elected President Barack Obama faces multiple challenges early in his first term.

According to Shelton, some of the challenges are sticking to his campaign promise of withdrawing from Iraq, allies that are more of a liability than an asset, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, South America, Pakistan, Africa, Russia and China.

He said China needs to be a concern for the U.S.

“They are phsyically fit and well trained, but they have older equipment,” Shelton said.

He continued to say those allies that are liabilites would be willing to sell the technology that is relativly equal to ours.

“China want us out of the Pacific and they are pouring money into offensive weapons such as missles to take out U.S. Navy ships that come too close,” Shelton warned.

Shelton told the audience that U.S. forces need to be completly out of Iraq.

The way to do that, he said, is to set milestones for the government.

Shelton said the way that works is for when the Iraqi government gets to a point, the U.S. does its set plan.

He also said Gen. Patreaous is the right man to do that.

“Patreaous was my former exectutive, he knows how to do whats needed,” Shelton said.

He said that the U.S. does need to fix the problem in Iraq because “We broke it so we need to fix it.”

After his speech, Shelton took questions from the crowd.

One question was whether the U.S. could take on the Iranian military if needed.

“Yes we can, it would take a total military mobilization of reserves and national guard to be committed across all fronts, but we still haven’t tapped the Navy or the Air Force very hard yet,” Shelton responded.

He said North Korean artillery hidden in caves that even our best bombs would be hard pressed to penetrate, give our forces in South Korea trouble sleeping at night.

“Our forces live with the possibilty that one morning Kin Jo Ill wakes up with a toothache and decides to take it out on South Korea,” he said.

Despite the numerous challenges, Shelton expressed his confidence in Obama.

“He has put a great team together,” he said.

Shelton also said “the buck stops with [Obama].

He said he fully supports Obama’s descision to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

He said what goes on there is an afront to American policy.

“That is not the way America does business,” Shelton said.