[lbo-talk] BLOWING SMOKE RINGS?

jacdon at earthlink.net jacdon at earthlink.net
Wed Dec 3 13:44:57 PST 2003


The following article will appear in the Dec. 7, 2003, issue of the Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter, published in New Paltz, NY, and distributed by jacdon at earthlink.net

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BLOWING SMOKE RINGS?

Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the invasion of Iraq earlier this year, either believes U.S. democracy is exceptionally fragile or he has found another means of frightening the American people into supporting the Bush administration's "wars on terrorism," or both.

Franks, now retired, was interviewed for an article in the December issue of Cigar Aficionado, an upscale magazine for men with expensive tastes who are devoted to cigar smoking. He appears on the cover of the magazine, smiling and dressed in a dark civilian suit, standing in front of a huge American flag while holding a 10-inch cigar. The headline identifies him as an "American Hero."

If this is how he wants to spend his retirement, so be it ‹ but what he had to say was intended to make our hair stand on end.

He seemed to be suggesting that President Bush's campaign against "terrorism" might be all that is standing in the way of a great national catastrophe. If "terrorists" get hold of a nuclear, chemical or biological weapon of mass destruction [WMD] and let it loose against the United States, he said, "the Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is [the] freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy."

How so? Even just one such attack, he said, "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."

Clearly, 37 years in the Army have not perfected his syntax, but he appears to be suggesting that in the event of a WMD terrorist attack, the American people will welcome a military dictatorship and the military will oblige. He seems to be warning that unless the people of the U.S. get fully behind President Bush and his policy of endless wars and war spending, the chances are there will be a terrorist attack of far greater magnitude than 9/11 and that democracy and freedom, as well as countless lives, will be lost for good.

We think he probably overdosed listening to one too many of President Bush's scare speeches.

He obviously thinks Bush is a great leader. "As I look at President Bush," he gushed, "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 this man in years to come as an American hero."

Franks concluded by declaring that "I doubt that we'll ever have a time when the world will actually be a peace." And he may be right, as long as "American heroes" such as Bush and Franks are allowed to exercise power. Unless he's just blowing smoke rings.



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