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

[halfdome]

What were Bubba and Arafat doing, planning for the destruction of America by Muslim terrorists?

[Grampa Dave]

My Dad had several relatives and friends involved in the Race Riots in Tulsa.

This perspective was to show the hot heads, that this nation has used martial law a lot to quell situations. When the situation became normal, the martial law was over.

I remember Ike ordering the paratroopers to go to Little Rock, Ark..

You and I are in total agreement about General Franks. He is a good man and is trying project what could/might happen if a WMD attack happened in America. I would like read his actual remarks to see if they were taken out of context with a few key words changed.

[GOPJ]

bump

[GOPJ]

Great comment:

Franks is what-iffing a worst case scenario, factoring in human nature. Don't shoot the messanger for delivering a warning.

[B4Ranch]

Those children are amongst the 20%.

[B4Ranch]

<"The 20% of which you speak is all above 45 years old. "

Perhaps I should have said primarily instead of all.

[Travis McGee]

You and I are in agreement.

[BobS]

Hi hope,

There is hope. Bush will get reelected. He is in the process of decimating the Left. Beyond that, all that needs to be done is for him to suspend all gun laws as an emergency executive order. And suggest all able-bodied law-abiding people own a weapon. And get some training. Hard and expensive, but doable. 100 million or so armed people will send a real message to the world. There is a time for these things, as we know. The Swiss have done very well with the same.

Bob

[hope]

Thanks for being forgiving...

I remember ash very well and the other's.. just have forgotten some of their names. Remember the ash alerts that Don Morgan use to run on each thread? Now they have their own DUmb website. I can tell you after spending a couple of visits there, I am astonished at the stupidity of those who use that word to describe the president.

[Destro]

The scary truth is that if the US military came breaking down our door - the guns would either be handed over or the hold outs will be Waco-ed. How many of us Americans are used to living out in the mountains like Chechens or Bosnian Serbs or Albanians? Jack Frost comes nipping at my nose up in the woods and I'm back home watching football in my easy chair with a picture of El Presidente hanging on a shrine on the wall. Hell 99.999% would give up resistance as soon as the toilet paper runs out.

The only hope we would have is if some govenors and their states, preferably those that still have a manufacturing base refuse to stand up to the Federal govt. Good Luck.

[William Tell]

BobS said: "Beyond that, all that needs to be done is for him [Bush] to suspend all gun laws as an emergency executive order. And suggest all able-bodied law-abiding people own a weapon. "

There is some fear by the anti-gunners that this is already happening due to the policy adopted by Ashcroft. Although Ashcroft's policy suggests that there can be "reasonable" restrictions, that notion is inconsistent with a "right". Virtually none of the gun laws on the books can pass a "strict scrutiny" test because they have no provable impact on any compelling government interest.

One might justify the Brady Bill if it was demonstrated that murderers and bank robbers were committing their crimes with knives. This is not happening because the law is ineffective.

I believe that it was the CDC, probably to make amends for past anti-gun activities, which examined some 50 studies of gun-control effectiveness and found that there was no evidence that any gun law had had a beneficial effect.

[archy]

<"The 20% of which you speak is all above 45 years old. "

Perhaps I should have said primarily instead of all.

Most definately. Though it's the influence and example set by those 45-year-old plus parents and grandparents that's the usual motivator for most of the relative youngsters. There are exceptions to that generality as well, but it's certainly more commonly so than not.

-archy-/-

[William Tell]

Destro said: "The scary truth is that if the US military came breaking down our door - the guns would either be handed over or the hold outs will be Waco-ed. "

You need to choose your battles wisely. Live to fight another day. Given the numbers, if each patriot takes down his minimum alotment of one jack-booted-thug, the victory goes to the patriots.

There were certainly some battlefield victories during the American Revolution, but the real victory came about because Washington kept the army in the field. It was never going to be safe for those who supported the tyrannical government of King George. Never.

[archy]

How would armed Americans handle a chemical or biological attack on the US?

Probably most immediately with checkpoints at jurisdictional boundaries, most commonly countyn lines.

In more extreme situations, by cutting or dropping briodges at rivers and posting guards to discourage tourism. Depends of the continued seriousness of the threat and follow-on incidents.

-archy-/-

[Destro]

We citizens need to be amred enough to serve as a deterent-make them think twice and hesitate and hope in that hesitation buys enough time for some national guards or regular military units to refuse orders and attempt a restoration of comstitutional govt.

[Destro]

We citizens need to be amred enough to serve as a deterent-make them think twice and hesitate and hope in that hesitation buys enough time for some national guards or regular military units to refuse orders and attempt a restoration of comstitutional govt.

[Eastbound]

"Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack"

Nor will the islamocrazies. But then, that is what they hope for -- like all cowards who press on until someone else liberates them from their self-imposed misery.

You don't have to be a shrink to understand that the islamo-terrorists are in fact, anti-islam. They hate the religion and are doing their best to extinguish islam world-wide even if the cost will be the total decimation of the Muslim world.

[Travis McGee]

Your resistance pardigm is all wrong IMHO. The days of playing Robin Hood in the woods, hiding out from the evil sheriff, are long over. Modern technology makes that suicide. Ditto resisting at your door: indeed a Waco would be the result.

But that's not the end of it!

The prudent person, in a time of peril, would cache the "serious" arms off of his property. If the "sheriff" came to collect the guns, he would hand over his "litmus test of freedom" weapon, the old revolver or other expendable weapon, with a smile on his face.

Then some weeks later, after midnight, he'd go collect his serious weapon and pay the "sheriff" a visit at home. Then he'd put the rifle away and go to work like every other day.

Put it another way: "camouflage" would not mean a BDU uniform. "Camouflage" would be a 3 piece suit, a UPS uniform, a plumber's service truck.

[eyespysomething]

IIRC Hawaii was under martial law from Dec 7, 1941 until WWII was over.

[Travis McGee]

ping above.