Retired U.S. General Attacks Kerry Over Bin Laden (Tommy Franks)

[wicket]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=564&e=6&u=/nm/20041019/ts_nm/campaign_franks_dc

The former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan (news - web sites) on Tuesday disputed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites)'s charge that the Bush administration let Osama bin Laden escape Afghanistan in 2001.

"I was responsible for the operation at Tora Bora, and I can tell you that the senator's understanding of events doesn't square with reality," retired Army Gen. Tommy Franks wrote in a commentary published by The New York Times.

The Kerry campaign took issue with the retired general's comments. "Franks is a patriot. But in his attempt to campaign for President (George W.) Bush, he's letting political spin get in the way of the facts," said campaign spokeswoman Brooke Anderson.

Franks, who has endorsed the Republican president's re-election bid, challenged Kerry's contention that U.S. forces had the fugitive al Qaeda leader surrounded but "outsourced" the job of capturing him to Afghan forces in the rugged Tora Bora region of eastern Afghanistan.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

1. Oh, brother...Franks gives Kerry a lecture on reality. LOL!!!

[burythehatchet]

2. uhhh, Tommy? may I inquire why your proclamation

waited until now? Oh yeah...I know...the bushits don't like to embarass their opponents.

[sonicx]

3. this is a good article. it tells the fact around the issue and...

it seems to me that Kerry is right. sorry franks!

[MGKrebs]

22. I agree!

Limbaugh was on this today, and it was so funny!
Limbaugh says Franks says we didn't "outsource" the attack, but then the description sure sounds a lot like outsourcing to me.
Franks says we didn't KNOW if osama was there, but some intelligence said he was. OooooK.

They're gonna need a big October Surprise, 'cuz ain't nothin' workin' yet.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. Gee, someone defending their own actions. That's real credible.

Too bad the facts don't jive.

[xray s]

5. Phranks phucked up

so...who is Tommy boy working for these days, anyway?

[DinahMoeHum]

6. Oh, Tommy, blow it out your ass, you f**king toady. . .

You, Mr. "Perfumed Prince", screwed up big time. No Kewpie doll for you.


:nuke:

[dogman]

7. To keep his ego stoked, Franks has to side with those who would pretend he

was a hero. A great job was done but the real credit belongs to the troops in the field. He was following orders from an unfit CIC.

[leesa]

16. Franks is a war criminal and he left his troops in the field

However, the "good job"?? Iraq didn't have a functional military..what are you talking about?

[dogman]

19. The troops accomplished their mission.

They had a low casualty count and faced adverse conditions without an adequate supply chain. They were out ahead of their support, short on fuel and ammo. Thank goodness it was not a functional military or the losses might have been catastrophic. An organized military would have cut them off and slaughtered them and also would have boobytrapped the caches and equipment. If there would have been WMD it might have been tragic. But that would have been the fault of the planners and not the troops who did their jobs well.

[FightingIrish]

8. What a real general had to say.

Tommy visited out town last Monday. The following Friday, General Merrill "tony" McPeak gave a no-nonsense lecture on why * must go. McPeak is a conservative Independent and seems a whole lot brighter than Tommy.

http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2004/1016/local/stories/07local.htm

[DrZeeLit]

9. Retired?

Hasn't he been travelling with the * campaign? at the convention? His head is so far up *'s ass.... He's been salivating for Rummy to be sacrificed on the altar of "win one for the Gipper."

Yeah, he's retired all right... another political hack.

[Guaranteed]

10. Tommy, you're a failure.

You blew it big time. I don't care why. No excuses.

[daleo]

11. In a way, he succeeded

Since I doubt they ever really wanted to capture Bin Laden anyway - too big a can of worms could be opened by that. They may have wanted to kill him at some point, but decided he was more useful as a (possibly) living boogie man.

But Franks failed everyone but Bush.

[tabasco]

12. Franks is a gutless POS.

Led his troops into the most dangerous part of the battle (and he knew it) and bailed on them - portraying himself as some kind of hero. Destroying the pathetic remnants of Saddam's army was not real tough. Tommy Franks grabbed the Baghdad airport and got the hell out of there. He knew the real fight was when the boys went downtown. He could have and should have stayed at Centcom until Baghdad was "pacified."

Now he is a liar and a war profiteer. Congrats, general, you're a traitor.

[argonne]

18. On the cover of

CIGAR AFICIONADO, he plays macho manly man! What a friggin' joke!

[krkaufman]

13. All this sorta flies in the face of previous stories reporting....

... Franks cursing when learning of Bush's November 21, 2001 request that he begin drawing up plans for the invasion of Iraq. Tommy, himself, is quoted as having his attention diverted from the hunt for bin Laden.

Oopsy.

[sangh0]

14. The LIAR claims both "We don't where OBL was", and "He wasn't here"

We don't know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001. Some intelligence sources said he was; others indicated he was in Pakistan at the time; still others suggested he was in Kashmir (news - web sites)," wrote Franks, who led the invasions of Afghanistan and later Iraq as chief of the U.S. military's Central Command.

"Tora Bora was teeming with Taliban and Qaeda operatives, many of whom were killed or captured, but Mr. bin Laden was never within our gasp."

SO basically, it's "we don't know that OBL was in Tora Bora, but I KNOW OBL didn't escape from Tora Bora"

[ElectroPrincess]

15. I only have one question for Tommy Franks =

How much stock have you in the corporations that are part of the military-industrial complex? For example, James Woolsey, former CIA Director, is invested up to his ears. Therefore, he has a conflict of interest and zero credibility, i.e., loves war for profit.

[Richardo]

17. "Mr. bin Laden"?

Is that Franks or the NYT style manual talking? I don't think I've EVER seen that murdering asshole OBL referred to so politely. :puke:

[Doosh]

20. bug eyed Tommy, partisan bush butt sniffer, right up there with Kerik

[acmavm]

21. Tommy 'We'll be out of Iraq in six months' Franks has NOOOO

high moral ground to stand on. He screwed up big time. The Iraqis folding right away gave him a false sense of security. So he thought he had it made, the whole flowers and songs thing. The dumbass rolled right on in without enough troops, no body armor, no armor plating for the military vehicles, not enough supplies, not enough water. Not enough of really any essentials. And he didn't think this might be a problem? He saw himself as the 21st century Patton.

Then, after his ass is sitting in Saddam's Palace all hell breaks loose, and he didn't have plan on for that eventuality. But there were sure other military personnel and planners trying to warn the egotistical bastard about what would (and probably could)happen. He was such a failure he had to be yanked and they sent his replacement, Sanchez.

Sun Tzu says that one of the most vital things in a war is to know, to understand, anticipate your enemy. Franks didn't have a clue.

[MSgt213]

23. Of course Franks gets his dander up he doesn't want to be perceived as a

weak inept General. But its okay because everyone knew or should know he couldn't fight the way he wanted to with the NeoCons running everything. Thanks Gen Franks for your service to our country in a time of need. But do not think for a moment that anyone thinks that if you could have gotten him you wouldn't have and shot him between the eyes yourself to boot. However, some things are beyond a general's control when he works in a society that places civilain leadership in charge of the military and most of us are smart enough to figure that out on our own.

[many a good man]

24. Looks like somebody's hoping to find some shares

of Halliburton stock in their Christmas stocking....

[JolietDem]

25. Hey Bob Woodward

I think if Franks is going to shill for the Bush Cartel we can apply Franks's deserved description of Rummy bootlick Douglas Feith to General Franks himself: 'The stupidest fucking man on the face of the earth."

[wicket]

26. Amen to that!!!