Posted on 11/20/2003 5:14:53 PM PST by hope
Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack
John O. Edwards, NewsMax.comGen. 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.
Friday, Nov. 21, 2003
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
Merely having a CCW permit is tantamount to having one's guns registered (in most states that issue them).
There are millions of us out here who will go down persoinally before that document is shredded. it, and the underlying principles that bear it up are what make us free and lends meaning to that free life.
Discarding it, forgetting it is to invite unimaginably worse conditions.
In WW II we were shocked back into reality and awakened. We can be again. But only so long as we remain free and do not discard the unalienable rights and the moral underpinning to them.
So...discard it if you will...but at your and all of our peril. I shall not.
It means that when there is no more bread and milk, there will be anarchy. Besides, when you have no job, you won't have the money to buy the milk and bread anyway. And forget your credit cards and cash, they won't be worth the paper/plastic they're printed on. Suggest you and millions more start to think rationally about what we're looking at right now if/when the big one goes off.
I don't know how you could have taken it any other way. What did you think the poster meant other than that he/she perceives him as a hero now? I have to admit that your response confused me. I assumed *you* didn't like Bush.
Sounds like northern South Carolina with a two inch "snowstorm".
I know that it isn't a perfect comparison, given that we were at war and they were a defeated society, but their civil life didn't end because of the bomb.
They also didn't have CNN, FNC, MSNBC, etc showing them live footage of the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima and the damage that was done.
And their whole country did fall apart. They were just lucky that we were the ones rebuilding it and not the Russians.
Every two-hundred-year-old nation is entitled to at least one patriot-dictator. I'd rather lose the Constitution temporarily than permanently. Today is so much like the media/political quagmire of the 1960s and 1970s it's sure to bring about the same result: win the battles over there, lose the war here.
The culture war is a war within a war. Both wars must be won for the United States of America to survive -- to take on and defeat Red China's aggression. Then a 1000 years of peace?
I think he's trying to warn us, and this scares me.
The ahses of the paper constitutin mean nothing...they live in principle within our heart and souls and million and millions have taken sacred oaths to bear true faith and allegiance to them...serious oaths that were not taken blindly and that will be honored.
Those commitments will not die with a WMD and they and that piece of paper you speak so blandly about mean more than life itself.
Study up on the history of this nation and the people who founded it and risked all to bring it about. Nathan Hale, John Paul Jones, John Warren, Samual Adams, John Adams...and the list extends to today.
Just what the hell do you think, "Give me liberty or give me daeth." meant? Or, "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.".
Those weren't just quaint metaphors or abstractions when they were uttered over 200 years agio...and they are not today.
There are hundreds dieing NOW to lend meaning to them and I will not roll over just because the enemy hits one home run.
Listen to yourselves for Christs's sake. This is exactly what the enemy would hope for in their wildest dreams...a destruction of everything that makes this nation what it is.
Clearly, the times would be horrific. but that does not mean we discard the very fabric of our consciencness or our underlying foundational frame work.
no...you are dead wrong. The constitution will not be forgotten or cast aside. If you will, then sir, speak for yourself alone...you do not speak for me or mine.
Forgive my ignorance.
Why is 1971 significant?
With an attitude like that, why not just throw in the towel now?
I believe our nation is stronger than the surface shows.
Which goes back to Franklin's quote, "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security."
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