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Retired general speaks at Harding
By Tim Bousquet
The Daily Citizen
Saturday, April 24, 2004 12:43 AM CST
Now is not the time to be questioning our leaders, Retired Army General Tommy Franks told a Harding University audience Thursday night.
"The men and women in uniform need much more than for us to criticize the decision making of their leaders," Franks said. "They need for us to love them and to respect them for giving the young people the chances we had."
Franks was responsible for all U.S. military operations for 25 countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, before retiring in August.
He was warmly received at Harding, a Church of Christ-affiliated college and alma mater of Franks' wife Cathy.
"It's good to be among people who recognize that this is in fact one nation under God," he said. "Some people don't like that. I do.
"In the heartland of America, we still recognize the value of choice, and we value the young people who do exactly what our commander-in-chief tells them to do, because that's what the Constitution tells them to do."
Franks criticized the congressional committee investigating the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"Should we blame ourselves for those attacks, or should we blame the people that did this to us? There was ample amounts of evidence that there was a problem before the 20th of January, 2001," he said, referring to the day President Bush was inaugurated.
The general said he refused to testify in public before the committee.
"If you want to raise your profile on CNN, go find someone else," he said.
Addressing journalist Bob Woodward's recent claims that he was ordered to draw up plans for the Iraq War within two months of Sept. 11, Franks said he presented a "scenario" - not a "plan" - for the war on Oct. 27, 2001.
"The president never asked me for a plan... But for 15 months after that the process of planning went on in various offices, and then in February of last year, I said, 'Mr. President, here's a plan.' He said, 'I like that one.'
"That plan was a good plan," Franks continued, "not a spectacular plan. But the work done by the soldiers, by the young people in the execution of that plan -- military historians will still be talking about that for 1,000 years."
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