The Commander: How Tommy Franks won the Iraq war

The Weekly Standard ^ | 06/02/03 | Fred Barnes

[Pokey78]

Ping for the FredHeads.

[deport]

fyi......

[MEG33]

Great read!

[Malesherbes]

Midland, Texas, is our secret weapon.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Fascinating !

[Victoria Delsoul]

FOR HIS WAR PLAN to succeed, Franks had to win the confidence of the commander in chief, Bush. Without the president's faith in the plan, it might be jettisoned at the first sign of trouble.

He certainly did. One of the things General Franks said prior to the war was, "Our goal, in this campaign is neither retaliation nor retribution, but victory."

[sine_nomine]

I can sleep better at night knowing that we have adults leading the country.

[MJY1288]

This was a great read Pokey, Thanks a million for posting it and most importantly, pinging me to it.

If I don't get to say thanks again this weekend, Have a great Memorial weekend

MJY

[miltonim]

Interesting.

[Sparta]

Operation Iraqi Freedom analysis ping

If you want on or off the Western Civilization Military History ping list, let me know.

[Sparta]

Courtesy ping for your military ping list.

[MJY1288]

"The press clamored for Franks to brief, but he did so only three times during his weeks in the war zone. When he returned to Tampa last month, there was no victory ceremony or parade. Franks and his top aides were met by their families at the MacDill Air Force Base terminal in Tampa and gathered privately afterwards. There was no TV coverage."

This is the mark of a "CLASS ACT" and those who were under his command will go to their graves respecting him for not taking the credit for their victory. The fact is Tommy Franks is a class act.

If I ever get the chance to go to Midland Texas, I'm going to force my 2 Grandsons to drink lots of their water, as the Mazda commercial says "Sumtins Up" in Midland Texas :-)

[gcruse]

What a great read. Thanks for finding it.

[AmericanVictory]

Notice the difference between the Clinton/Clark concept of war as a bloodless vehicle to provide arguments for integrating women and real war with real troops on the ground and the majority of the nation behind it.

[patriciaruth]

Midland, Texas, is our secret weapon.

Where the air smells like...."money."

[Grampa Dave]

Bumping a great article! Thanks Pokey!

[patriciaruth]

Ping.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the ping Sparta

[MinuteGal]

Totally absorbing. I want more! Can't wait till the books on tactics begin to come out.

A commendatory word must be said about this article. It's journalism at its finest. When I scrolled back up to see who wrote it, I wasn't surprised to see it was our friend, Fred Barnes. I knew it couldn't be a liberal scribe.

Fred's a fine writer. It also looks like he's getting the benefit of some real inside stuff from the administration.

Leni