Gen: Tommy Franks: WMD in USA? Constitution's toast.

[MinnFats]

this appeared in NewsMax, which copped it -- I'm not making this up, I swear -- Cigar Afficionado!...so take it with a few pounds of salt. if this is a duplicate, my apologies...


http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/11/20/185048.shtml


snippet:

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.”

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[Must_B_Free]

1. Haha - you tinfoil hat people make me laugh!

:silly: :tinfoilhat:

Next you'll be trying to claim that that bullet that killed Kennedy really wasn't "magic".

Ah ha ha ha! Everyone knows lone nuts are the only ones crazy enough to use magic bullets...

[RBHam]

2. Hmmm...whom would benefit from such an attack?

"Franks didn’t speculate about how soon such an event might take place."

Others have...

"While we prepare for another terrorist attack, we need to understand that it is not a question of if, but a question of when," -Tom Ridge

"In my opinion, the prospects of a future attack against the United States are almost certain ... not a matter of if, but when." -Dick Cheney

"I think we will see that (domestic terror attacks) in the future, I think it's inevitable," FBI Director Robert Mueller

In my humble opinion, War Hero/Criminal Franks is on to his next job : helping to condition the American populace into giving up their constitutional liberties and civil rights for "security".

In other news, an intense, localized earthquake in Oxfordshire, England has been recorded by seismologists at 6.66 on the Richter scale. Local officials say the epi-center of the quake was situated approximately where George Orwell is buried.

http://orwell.ru/bio/grave/english/

[bearfartinthewoods]

4. does anyone seriously doubt that it will happen?

the day of 9/11 i cried, not just for the lost souls but for the lose of the America that we knew. it proved the lie of the myth of fortress America, safe between the oceans. whether frank's prediction as to the lose of our constitutional rights post attack depends on the nature and scope of the attack.

if a nuke was smuggled into NYC and killed ten million people do you think for an instant that the people would not be clamoring for protection against a reoccurance?

free travel would be suspended. searches would be too widespread to
be properly reviewed. imagine the screening at airports an apply that to crossing state boundries. we would be in a nationwide lockdown ala the worst of the soviet union for who knows how long.

i don't read frank's warning as anything more than that....a warming as to what THE PEOPLE will demand if something big happens. if you choose to see this as the pubbies rubbing their hands together in anticipatory glee at the prospects, i can't stop you. as long as you remember the people will be on their side.

[9215]

6. Orwell is turning over

in his grave, no doubt. :bounce:

Good post.

[newyawker99]

3. MinnFats

Per DU copyright rules
please post only 4
paragraphs from the
news source.


Thank you.

NYer99
DU Moderator

[Silverhair]

5. This has already been hashed out at DU. Link here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=754399

Well, at least you quoted accurately. The other poster reduced it from a WMD attack to a mere terrorist attack.

Consider this: If terrorists were to suddenly kill 200,000 people in say, Paris, don't you think that would send a shock wave of fear around the world. People would be scared sh*tless that it would happen here. They would DEMAND martial law.

Even a liberal president and congress would have to DO SOMETHING. And calling a conference at the UN to study the problem, and a couple of missiles at some desert camp would not be considered adequate by the public.

You can take off the tinfoil hat. This isn't some play for a power grab by Bush. He was correctly speaking about how populations react when they feel seriously threatened.

Or perhaps you think that if downtown Manhattan were nuked, that life would continue as normal?