Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack

News Max.Com ^ | 11-21-03

[hope]

Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack

John O. Edwards, NewsMax.com
Friday, Nov. 21, 2003

Gen. Tommy Franks says that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.

Franks, who successfully led the U.S. military operation to liberate Iraq, expressed his worries in an extensive interview he gave to the men’s lifestyle magazine Cigar Aficionado.

In the magazine’s December edition, the former commander of the military’s Central Command warned that if terrorists succeeded in using a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) against the U.S. or one of our allies, it would likely have catastrophic consequences for our cherished republican form of government.

Discussing the hypothetical dangers posed to the U.S. in the wake of Sept. 11, Franks said that “the worst thing that could happen” is if terrorists acquire and then use a biological, chemical or nuclear weapon that inflicts heavy casualties.

If that happens, Franks said, “... the Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we’ve seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy.”

Franks then offered “in a practical sense” what he thinks would happen in the aftermath of such an attack.

“It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world – it may be in the United States of America – that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event. Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution. Two steps, very, very important.”

Franks didn’t speculate about how soon such an event might take place.

Already, critics of the U.S. Patriot Act, rushed through Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, have argued that the law aims to curtail civil liberties and sets a dangerous precedent.

But Franks’ scenario goes much further. He is the first high-ranking official to openly speculate that the Constitution could be scrapped in favor of a military form of government.

The usually camera-shy Franks retired from U.S. Central Command, known in Pentagon lingo as CentCom, in August 2003, after serving nearly four decades in the Army.

Franks earned three Purple Hearts for combat wounds and three Bronze Stars for valor. Known as a “soldier’s general,” Franks made his mark as a top commander during the U.S.’s successful Operation Desert Storm, which liberated Kuwait in 1991. He was in charge of CentCom when Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda attacked the United States on Sept. 11.

Franks said that within hours of the attacks, he was given orders to prepare to root out the Taliban in Afghanistan and to capture bin Laden.

Franks offered his assessment on a number of topics to Cigar Aficionado, including:

President Bush: “As I look at President Bush, I think he will ultimately be judged as a man of extremely high character. A very thoughtful man, not having been appraised properly by those who would say he’s not very smart. I find the contrary. I think he’s very, very bright. And I suspect that he’ll be judged as a man who led this country through a crease in history effectively. Probably we’ll think of him in years to come as an American hero.”

On the motivation for the Iraq war: Contrary to claims that top Pentagon brass opposed the invasion of Iraq, Franks said he wholeheartedly agreed with the president’s decision to invade Iraq and oust Saddam Hussein.

“I, for one, begin with intent. ... There is no question that Saddam Hussein had intent to do harm to the Western alliance and to the United States of America. That intent is confirmed in a great many of his speeches, his commentary, the words that have come out of the Iraqi regime over the last dozen or so years. So we have intent.

“If we know for sure ... that a regime has intent to do harm to this country, and if we have something beyond a reasonable doubt that this particular regime may have the wherewithal with which to execute the intent, what are our actions and orders as leaders in this country?”

The Pentagon’s deck of cards: Asked how the Pentagon decided to put its most-wanted Iraqis on a set of playing cards, Franks explained its genesis. He recalled that when his staff identified the most notorious Iraqis the U.S. wanted to capture, “it just turned out that the number happened to be about the same as a deck of cards. And so somebody said, ‘Aha, this will be the ace of spades.’”

Capturing Saddam: Franks said he was not surprised that Saddam has not been captured or killed. But he says he will eventually be found, perhaps sooner than Osama bin laden.

“The capture or killing of Saddam Hussein will be a near term thing. And I won’t say that’ll be within 19 or 43 days. ... I believe it is inevitable.”

Franks ended his interview with a less-than-optimistic note. “It’s not in the history of civilization for peace ever to reign. Never has in the history of man. ... I doubt that we’ll ever have a time when the world will actually be at peace.”

Editor's note:
Check out "Resolve" with the official President Bush photo – Click Here Now

The Iraqi "Deck of Death" playing cards – Get yours today!

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
George W. Bush
Saddam Hussein/Iraq
Al-Qaeda
War on Terrorism

[txhurl]

I think everybody's about to show all their cards. Getting the banks behind our imminent slam-dunk.. especially Iran.. is the last detail.

[visualops]

Oh yes, of course...for the children.

[SevenDaysInMay]

Right.

My copy of our RATIFIED Constitution does not have the "martial law in case of frightened surviving politicians lobbied by willing public union workers unions' bosses" clause.

For those who believe in the BORG constitutional theory imposed by force of arms without ratified Constitutional basis from the first Bull Run offensive to Appamattox Courthose in 1865, islam's Terror War, aka Clintonazis' DNC-Politburo needs all the help it can get socialism movement even if it means fascism, will draw lines in concrete like nothing since the sword's sand scratch at our Alamo.

Men and women of honor are dangerous to men and women of treachery.

Judges and justices have for too long, rogue starre decisis seven decades and counting, been given a pass at their serial, conspiring unConstitutional "BAD BEHAVIOR" rulings in which politicians in and out of blackrobes fail to recognize our RATIFIED Constitution - THE Law of the Land, the only social contract from which they derive any and all of their lawful, temporary, limited power.

There is no RATIFIED Constitutional basis for "martial law", aside from elites' CYA legal doctrines such "compelling State interests" and "sovereign immunity". Owners of assault gavels are registered in their own unique way.

If our first Constitutional Republic is trashed amid Blackpox and/or nukes' mushroom clouds, it shall not be by We the People, but by Hillaries' claims to solidify for themselves their imagined place in constitutional convention history, never more than a quarter mile from Americans sworn under God (and armed) to protect and defend our (ratified, the one and only) Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic.

Islam has engaged Americans in this Biblical war; none too soon shall we be at total war with islamists across this changing planet - smiting lice to nits of this terror war as dictated by their holy scripture, Mein Koran and eine kleine Haddith and fatwa upon fatwa.

War is Hell. Mo'ham's promise of a pair of dice has nothing to do with countless death cultists dying as forgotten scabs in the dust.

We are in for some grave tasks at home and over seas.

[TSgt]

Does Queen Jamilla have her own line of syrup?

[Momaw Nadon]

Not that I am aware of.

Star Wars Databank

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Gen. Franks knew what his troops needed to hear. Did he believe it himself?

...."there was never a doubt in mind that at the end of the day it would be exactly as our people said it would be: The regime would be gone, the Iraqi people would be free." "A low point in terms of doubting, no sir, I never had it." He added that on a particularly bad day he told his staff and the commanders: "Don't ever, ever second-guess what you are doing. You are doing a wonderful job. Get your heads up and it will turn out just fine." ~ Gen. Franks, June 19, 2003.

I'm sorry Gen. Franks stepped down before his job was done.
~~~~~~~

Opinions vary on what to do under such circumstances, how best to do it, and what priorities and assignments would be involved in attempting to do so. But I have no doubt that if no other competent leader began to do so, one of our number would take a big breath and do so.

I am very glad you have friends in high places ~ to watch your back, and keep you out of trouble. ( ~;

[STARWISE]

They had us .. the US .. to save them and bring them to sanity and new life and new order. Who's going to save us if US is disabled?

[lainde]

bttt

[Rome2000]

Franks said that “the worst thing that could happen” is if terrorists acquire and then use a biological, chemical or nuclear weapon that inflicts heavy casualties

Gee, what are the chances that a bunch of subhuman maniacs whose very religion glorifies suicide bombing and whose sole purpose in life is to exterminate Jews and Christians will get their hands on nuclear or biological weapon and use it to inflict not just 3,000 casualties in America in about an hour but 500,000?

I'd say it is a certainty that this will happen here in the next 20 years.

When that happens, what Franks says will happen is a sure bet.

What happens when the enemy is undistinguishable from the civilian, and you continue to take casualties but cannot retaliate for fear of killing the innocent?

What happens is that you have no choice but to wipe out or at a minmum decimate the populations of the offending countries.

You jail all of the leftists, treasonous Democrats, and Islamonazi symps, take the same weapon of mass destruction that was used against your population, and go over and take out the middle east.

3-5 million dead ragheads.

Outlaw Islam to boot.

Too bad it can't just be done now, but apparently we'll have to lose about half a million on our side first before it becomes politically acceptable.

But make no mistake about it, this WILL happen within the next 20 years.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Woe be to the terrorist nations! Their sand shall glassy be.

[Constitutional Patriot]

Hopefully by maintaining order in their communities.

My point was that I do not feel that most Americans wil accept the notion of martial law after another terrorist attack.

I think they would insist upon mass deportations of middle eastern people. When the government chooses not to do this, some people may take matters into their own hands.

[Constitutional Patriot]

Who said anything about those posers?!!?

[Destro]

Just meant to say I do not think an army will rise out of the country side and march on Washington. Sorry for being dramatic.

[IMHO]

"I hope this will never happen...."

"I don't think they'd be able to...."

"They'd just go after the muslims..."

"It'd just be temporary..."

"It'd be necessary in an emergency...."

"After it was done, the Constitution would be reinstated...."

What Garbage. I hope when reality hits, you all won't turn into a bunch of quislings. (meaning, of course, only those who are not already quislings)

[hope]

hmmm, I don't remember saying any of those things...

[GatekeeperBookman]

FEEMA has tents & maps & palns for the national forrests. They will remove the populations-no one will have an option-it will be a forced move.

"The War does indeed have many facets; http://aztlan.net/ Look at your enemy."

[GatekeeperBookman]

If those planes had hit the Exchange-we would already be where you suggest we may go. I shudder to think...


"The War does indeed have many facets; http://aztlan.net/ Look at your enemy."

[GatekeeperBookman]

FEEMA has many millions of tents, maps & plans for the national parks-seriously, they do. They will not ASK if you want to go camping. The FEEMA districts were established under Eisenhower to provide for order after a nuclear attack-they have the real power, backed by the new Homeland Security. The President & HS would rule the nation.

"The War does indeed have many facets; http://aztlan.net/ Look at your enemy."

[GatekeeperBookman]

Pollyanna. Have you ever seen the acronym, 'FEEMA'? Consider what the markets will do in response. Better get some bottled H20 & some other stuff.

"The War does indeed have many facets; http://aztlan.net/ Look at your enemy."

[GatekeeperBookman]

Now, YOU are scaring ME. I must agree, he talks from some background, some prior experience on the topic.

"The War does indeed have many facets; http://aztlan.net/ Look at your enemy."