An American Soldier by Tommy Franks
I found this an interesting autobiography: the author has lived an interesting life. He was a goofball when he graduated from High School and entered college at the University of Texas, Austin. After a poor performance at the school, he decided
to enlist in the Army. He qualified for cryptography school, but found that was not his interest, in other words not real soldiering. He eventually qualified for OCS and became an officer, specifically a second lieutenant. He served in Vietnam and was wounded three times. He received a serious enough injury to be put in the hospital. So it looks like a legitimate wound not a "John Kerry wound" which could be fixed with a band aid.
[As an aside, I think the swift boat captains should be allowed to express their views. These people where there. Why shouldn't they be allowed to say what they think?].
I found Franks' observations to be interesting. While he does not strike me as that religious, I found his description of being at a dinner with Bush to be interesting. Bush anounced that he was going to pray. General Franks said he was glad that there was a man of faith in the White House. I guess there are no atheists in fox holes. General Franks mentions refering to the verse in Ephesians about putting on the whole armor of God.
As I remember, his commentary about Richard Clarke sort of ties in with Buzz Patterson in his book RECKLESS DISREGARD. Franks said he was warned by someone that Clarke had an exaggerated view of his own importance. He also mentions Clarke
promised a lot of things in the works but was short on specifics or backing up his talk. Patterson in his book puts it bluntly and says that Clarke was a fraud.
Perhaps the coverage on Rumsfeld is somewhat unfair. The war in Afghanistan and Iraq went quicker than critics said it would take. Granted Rumsfeld probably should have a larger troop commitment for occupation, but he should at least be given credit for overrunning the oppostition quickly. Granted the insurgency has not gone away, but one should remember that even after Germany's surrender, there
were a few diehards who persisted on fighting two years after the surrender. Also in the Soviet Union resistance in the Ukraine and the Baltics States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), lasted till about 1954, if I remember correctly.
Apparently Rumsfeld and Franks had a good working relationship. Someone said that Franks made Rumsfeld a better secretary of Defense and Rumsfled made Franks a better general. I guess they challenged each other. I am reminded of the verse in proverbs "Iron sharpens Iron, so one man sharpens another."
Whether or not you agree with General Franks views, I think you will find his story inspiring. It was interesting to see him go from college goofball and dropout to college graduate and four star general. Franks' views of waging war are also interesting - he is someone who has obviously thought alot about his craft.
# posted by GuyTak @ 4:51 AM
