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Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack
News Max.Com ^ | 11-21-03

Posted on 11/20/2003 5:14:53 PM PST by 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


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: constitution; napalminthemorning; tommyfranks; wmd; wot
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To: Monty22
"When it happens here, it'll be chaos like you can't imagine."

You are absolutely correct my friend.

Just look at how Americans act after finding out that a major snowstorm or other weather event is coming. Can you imagine the chaos if people couldn't go to their local store to buy hotdogs or duct tape?

Americans today, except for the very old, have always been able to get what they need when they need it.

I'm not a whacko, tinfoil, conspiracy survivalist. I'm just a young man, 27, who sees the big picture and meticulously follows current events.

And damn those who don't think we are in a holy war because we are.
81 posted on 11/20/2003 6:05:57 PM PST by TSgt (I am proudly featured on U.S. Rep Rob Portman's homepage: http://www.house.gov/portman/)
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To: Jeff Head
Sorry, but I simply don't accept your view that we could survive a WMD attack and maintain our current view of the "Constitution." The fact is that today, the west is already incapable of doing what it must to beat terrorism. We're too soft--just look at the left-wingers in this country, in the media, in Europe. You can't convince them to do what is really necessary. A WMD will put the west into a dark age in which only the strongest will survive, and I don't mean the professors and lawyers.
82 posted on 11/20/2003 6:08:23 PM PST by Cautor
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To: Monty22
"It'll be over."

Society is only five meals away from chaos.

Bio weapon quarantines shutting down interstate travel for a month would shut down the grocery stores in a week, which would be chaos for the boob-tube, prime-time masses.

The more self-reliant types will endure with less discomfort.
83 posted on 11/20/2003 6:08:23 PM PST by Rebelbase
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To: MikeWUSAF
Look how crazy everything got with a few DAYS of power loss from the blackout.

Imagine that.. everywhere basically, forever.

And people on this thread are all going 'oh, it can't get that bad'.

ignorance.
84 posted on 11/20/2003 6:08:33 PM PST by Monty22
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To: MikeWUSAF
you mean because people buy bread and milk before a snowstorm comes, that means we will decend into anarchy after a WMD attack?
85 posted on 11/20/2003 6:08:39 PM PST by oceanview
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To: hope
So what's so scary? The Constitution makes room for states of emergency and martial law under certain circumstances. And rightfully so.
86 posted on 11/20/2003 6:09:12 PM PST by Ramius
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To: Monty22
All of the bad things you infer as regards the impact of such an attack will happen should one be pulled off...but it is not so dire as you imagine and the worst thing we could do...and what myself and millions of others will fight to prevent, is a discarding of the constitution.

See my post 65. The armed forces and the politicians and every other government employee have taken an oath to protect, defend and bear true faith and allegiance to that document. They day they discard it is the day they become the enemy themselves.

As hard as it may be, we can get through such a scenario without that, we can survive it. What we will not survive is a discarding of the constitution...at least not until it it restored.

87 posted on 11/20/2003 6:09:50 PM PST by Jeff Head
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To: Monty22
Don't be a fool. If you think a substantial portion of the food supply would be irradiated, you don't grasp the true nature of a nuclear attack. While terrible, the impacted area would be quite small relative to the entire US. The vast majority of folks wouldn't be impacted directly at all aside from losing money in their 401k.
88 posted on 11/20/2003 6:10:14 PM PST by NittanyLion (Character Counts)
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To: Monty22
there was no panic at all during the blackout, and I'm in NY, right in the middle of it.
89 posted on 11/20/2003 6:10:15 PM PST by oceanview
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To: visualops
Those are words from a Soldier's General. Character indeed out ranks any other attributes of an effective leader.
90 posted on 11/20/2003 6:10:19 PM PST by desertcry
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To: michigander
Mind your knot...and your six.
91 posted on 11/20/2003 6:11:03 PM PST by Jeff Head
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To: hope
Martial Law could come about for much less significant issues than a WMD attack. It was very close to happening during the localized L.A. riot.
92 posted on 11/20/2003 6:11:23 PM PST by winker
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To: Straight Vermonter
I think that if a WMD mass casualty event happens here in the US we will see a military government much like the Revolutionary War years - not the Clintonoid FEMA JBTs rounding up the populace and putting us into camps. More likely those of us of fighting age would be drafted into immediate service.

The military wouldn't be out to get our guns away - as the military would be us. I wouldn't want to be of middle eastern origins in that scenario, as their survival rate would be very small indeed - worldwide.

The most likely target of a WMD attack would be Israel - the Islamonazis would prize that above any other target, even Washington DC. The results of that would be swift indeed. Goodbye Arabia. The best route - no, the only route - for the muslim world now is to root out the radicals, and bring them to justice themselves or give them to us in a preemptive show of solidarity against terrorism. Right now, Afghanistan, Turkey, and Iraq would be spared IMO. Bets are off for the rest of Islam, however.
93 posted on 11/20/2003 6:11:28 PM PST by 11B3 (Liberalism is merely another form of mental retardation.)
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To: NittanyLion
especially if the weapon is detonated at ground level.
94 posted on 11/20/2003 6:11:44 PM PST by oceanview
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To: Monty22
You're wrong...wrong about me, and wrong about millions of others.
95 posted on 11/20/2003 6:11:56 PM PST by Jeff Head
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To: oceanview
that's quite an exaggeration, there would not be "anarchy" except perhaps in the immediate area of the attack. why would people in Ohio stop paying rent if Manhattan were nuked? We could have an earthquake in LA tomorrow that would do more damage then a small nuclear weapon, would we have anarchy everywhere in the US as a result?

Try explaining that to the people seeing news footage of a mushroom cloud over an American city on every TV station. The banks would have to be shut down to keep people from yanking out all their money and crashing the system. Grocery stores would have their shelves stripped in short order. Untold numbers of people will flee the larger cities for fear of another imminent nuclear bombing. Freeways in major population centers will be clogged with traffic jams worse than even the worst rush hour in LA.

Never underestimate the power of millions of frightened people.

96 posted on 11/20/2003 6:12:54 PM PST by Orangedog (Soccer-Moms are the biggest threat to your freedoms and the republic !)
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To: NittanyLion
No, I meant people fleeing the cities. What they don't directly nuke, they'll probably dirty bomb.. I'd expect few nukes due to logistics, lots of dirty bombs.. A lot of land would be uninhabitable.

I didn't mean the food/water.. Just the space.
97 posted on 11/20/2003 6:12:56 PM PST by Monty22
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To: Jeff Head
What, how am I wrong?

You'll be concerned about the smoldering ashes of the copy of the constitution that'll be burned up in DC with the rest of the place?

No, you'll be more worried about living day to day.
98 posted on 11/20/2003 6:14:24 PM PST by Monty22
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To: sport
"We are going to have fight them. We can fight them here or there."

Well said. That is why every Democrap that does not support our effort now is aiding the enemy.

I get so angry when they say they want our troops home now. Why, so we can fight them here among our civilian casualties?

99 posted on 11/20/2003 6:15:05 PM PST by AGreatPer
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To: NittanyLion
From Ex-Parte Milligan:

"If, in foreign invasion or civil war, the courts are actually closed, and it is impossible to administer criminal justice according to law, then, on the theatre of active military operations, where war really prevails, there is a necessity to furnish a substitute for the civil authority, thus overthrown, to preserve the safety of the army and society; and as no power is left but the military, it is allowed to govern by martial rule until the laws can have their free course. As necessity creates the rule, so it limits its duration; for, if this government is continued after the courts are reinstated, it is a gross usurpation of power. Martial rule can never exist where the courts are open, and in the proper and unobstructed exercise of their jurisdiction. It is also confined to the locality of actual war."

IMHO, martial law would be a necessity in "the locality of acutal war".

But martial law is nuanced. Civilian control with the military providing security in America is indeed martial law.

General Franks got a bit hyperbolic but in the advent of a nuke or biolgical weapon in a major city, the military would not only be advisable, it would be necessary.

100 posted on 11/20/2003 6:15:17 PM PST by jwalsh07
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