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Retired Gen. Tommy Franks Says U.S. Should Put Iraq On 5-Year Plan
Franks Talks Candidly In Exclusive Interview With PARADE Magazine About War,
Israel, Saddam and Osama
NEW YORK, July 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who led U.S.
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, says he never thought the U.S. could be out of
Iraq in a year. Five years, he says, is a realistic timeline. "It takes time
to solve problems when you're talking about 25 to 26 million people," Franks
tells PARADE magazine for this Sunday's issue, noting that Iraq has to dig
itself out of a "30-year hole."
Franks, 59, who retired from the military in July 2003, had a lot to say
in this exclusive interview with PARADE, his first national interview since
leaving command:
* The biggest surprise for him was that they've found no weapons of mass
destruction (WMD), the "reason we went to war." He says multiple
Middle Eastern leaders, including Jordan's King Abdullah and Egypt's
Hosni Mubarak, told Franks that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
In January 2003, Mubarak said point blank to Franks, "Saddam has
WMD-biologicals, actually-and he will use them on your troops."
* Franks and his warplanners expected 150,000 additional international
troops to help with peacekeeping operations. They never materialized.
* Franks singles out White House Counter-terrorism Czar Richard Clarke as
never providing him with "a single page of actionable intelligence" and
of engaging in mostly wishful thinking. Franks also believes the U.S.
invested too much in electronic spy surveillance and not enough in
spies. "We can't send a Princeton-educated New York lawyer to
infiltrate al-Qaeda. To get information, we have to marry the devil or
at least employ him. You have to deal."
* Franks steered clear of Israel while he was a U.S. military commander
and openly told Arab leaders that he was sympathetic to their issues.
"For years," he tells PARADE, "I had told my Arab friends that I had
'no Israeli visa' in my passport. This was an unofficial way of
letting them know that I understood their side of the story."
* Franks was disappointed that the Iraqis initially chose looting and
insurgency over pulling together to rehabilitate their country --
immediately coming out to guard museums, weapons depots, etc.
* Franks describes contentious battles among the military service chiefs
over his warplans for Afghanistan and how he told his civilian bosses
in the Pentagon that he wanted "to be left the hell alone" to run the
Iraq war.
* Franks openly rebuts and takes issue with the long-standing "Powell
doctrine" of over-whelming military force. Powell criticized Franks'
warplans for Iraq, drawing his ire.
* Franks believes the world is "far safer" without Saddam Hussein. Asked
about Osama bin Laden, he says that, unlike Saddam, who was hated in
Iraq, tens of thousands of Arab families would happily take Osama in as
their hero. Franks believes Osama will be caught eventually, "even
though we don't have enough sources on the ground."
This Sunday's PARADE also features an adaptation from Gen. Franks' new
book, American Soldier, to be published Aug. 3 by ReganBooks/HarperCollins.
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