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An American Soldier

Taking time to say thanks in person, Tommy R. Franks shakes the hand of Private First Class Patrick McDermott a soldier with the 197th Aviation Battalion who was recovering from wounds received in Operation Iraqi Freedom at the 47th Combat Support Hospital in the Kuwait desert.

Army Gen. Tommy Franks

If Tommy Franks had been a better student, he might have stayed in the hot, dry confines of Midland, Tex. Instead, the young man who was failing college in 1965 and nursing a hangover when he enlisted at the local Army recruiting office rose to become the general who would lead our nation into war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In person, Franks, 59, is charming and charismatic. He is a big man who seems even bigger when he moves about a room, radiating an ease and confidence that most politicians can only envy. And he has been at the top. If you want to understand the war on terror — both its successes and its failures — you need to know Tommy Franks.

General Franks — with his wife, Cathy, at his side — on a steamy July day in Norfolk, Va., stopped to attend the promotion of their son-in-law to lieutenant colonel in the Army. The two have one daughter, Jacqy, 33, and have moved 23 times in 35 years of marriage. Since retiring from the military in July 2003, Franks has continued this constant motion. He has given 100 speeches in the last year, half for charity, half for pay (his fees top out at $100,000), and he shuttles between a house in Tampa, Fla., and a ranch in Oklahoma. Franks also has just written a book, American Soldier, which will be published this week.

Franks did only eight media briefings during the main Afghan and Iraqi campaigns. But no one should underestimate his power and influence. His war plans all but eviscerated the military's cherished "Powell doctrine," articulated by now Secretary of State Colin Powell, which called for the use of overwhelming force against the enemy. Franks instead went into Iraq with just one Coalition soldier for every 2.5 Iraqi troops. Unhappy with how the heads of the Marine Corps, Air Force, Army and Navy "nitpicked" his plans for the Afghan war, Franks says he made clear to his civilian bosses at the Pentagon that the other generals' presence at his daily satellite briefings was "not helpful" and that he wanted to be "left the hell alone to run the Iraq War." He largely got his wish.

Franks also conducted his own bouts of diplomacy, meeting with the strongmen, sheiks and monarchs who rule the oil-rich nations of the Middle East. In a controversial move, he bypassed Israel, America's long-standing ally in the region. "For years," he explains, "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."

In January 2003, two months before the Iraq War, Jordan's King Abdullah and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak both told Franks that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, or WMD. According to Franks, Mubarak told him point-blank: "Saddam has WMD — biologicals, actually — and he will use them on your troops." Within an hour, he relayed that message to Washington.

So it's no surprise that Franks has some blistering opinions about our intelligence process, the outcome of the war, the hunt for WMD and what he calls "the Washington blame game."

Why is Osama bin Laden still at large? Franks says that, unlike Saddam, who was hated in Iraq, tens of thousands of Arab families would happily take Osama in as their hero. We'll get him eventually, Franks asserts, "even though we don't have enough sources on the ground."

Indeed, the man who embraced high-tech warfare thinks we invested too much money in electronic spy surveillance and not enough in spies themselves. "We can't send a Princeton-educated New York lawyer to infiltrate al-Qaeda," Franks says. "To get information, we have to marry the devil or at least employ him. You have to deal."

Franks singles out Richard Clarke — the former National Security Council official responsible for counterterrorism, who has criticized the Administration's anti-terror policies — as being enamored of surveillance technology like the unmanned Predator drone. In a bit of score-settling, Franks says: "I never received a single page of actionable intelligence from Richard Clarke."

Tommy R. Franks, center, talks to Lt. General David D. McKiernan, right, and another Combatant commander at a forward operating airbase in Kuwait on April 7, 2003.

Humble Beginnings

In his new book, Franks describes growing up almost poor in Oklahoma and then Texas. His dad was a talented mechanic with few business skills, and his mom sold homemade cakes. Both loved their only child. Neither would tell Tommy that he was adopted until high school, even though he had found his original birth certificate in a family bible when he was 7.

In high school, Franks was a year ahead of the future Laura Bush. She was popular; he made less of an impression. The yearbook got his name wrong in a team picture. Things changed in the military. His shooting skills drew attention. He went to officer candidate school and entered Vietnam as a second lieutenant in 1967. Stationed on the front lines, he was wounded multiple times. He came home with a chest of decorations, married his sweetheart, Cathy, and planned to get out of the military. Then the Army offered to pay for school. He re-enlisted and stayed in.

In 2000, President Clinton nominated Franks for a fourth star and the command of CENTCOM — which, from its Tampa headquarters, oversees the greater Middle East. After 9/11, Franks wrote a war plan for Afghanistan in 10 days. It relied on air power, Special Forces troops and Afghan militias. Not everyone in the military liked it, just as they didn't like his plans for Iraq. Franks was accused of trying to please Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and President Bush, rather than holding out for what was best for the forces on the ground.

Franks and Lt. General David D. McKiernan sit along the runway to talk over events of operation Iraqi Freedom at a forward operating airbase in Kuwait on April 7, 2003.

What Went Wrong

Franks now bristles at these suggestions. He maintains that, in Iraq, "having a smaller force gave the U.S. an element of surprise." He believes that the quick rush to Baghdad saved Iraq's oil wells from destruction, prevented total sabotage of its water supply and thwarted deadly missile attacks on U.S. forces. The only people who were surprised by Baghdad's quick fall on April 9, 2003, he says, were the "cable news folks, like al-Jazeera and CNN."

Franks says his biggest surprise of the campaign was the failure to find WMD—"the reason we went to war." Every sign, he insists, from Arab leaders to intelligence estimates, had indicated that Saddam had them. "The only time a dead certainty applies is in a dream world," he says.

While the campaign was formidable, the turbulent aftermath is likely to make Franks' legacy more mixed. Things in Iraq went "as I had expected, not as I had hoped," says Franks, who retired two months after formal hostilities ended. The U.S. let Americans and the world think "the post-war phase would be over as quickly as the hostilities," he explains, "while the Iraqis expected to go from the dark ages to the prosperous middle class overnight."

Franks clearly is disappointed in the Iraqis, who, in his view, initially chose looting and insurgency over "pulling themselves together to reform their country." And he faults the international community, which never committed "serious numbers of peacekeepers or funds" to help Iraq after Saddam. During the planning, Franks and his team expected that 150,000 international troops would join U.S. forces in the post-war phase. They never materialized.

Could the current guerrilla war have been prevented, as critics contend? Franks says he isn't sure. Knowing what he knows now, he would still attack with the same size force. But, he adds, he would handle the "approach and reconnaissance around key towns differently." Yet he doubts that either would have changed the final result, although other strategists surely will disagree. Flooding the country with cash to quickly employ "angry young Iraqis" might have helped too, he adds.

General Tommy R Franks visits with troops foward deployed during IRAQI Freedom. Franks thanked the troops and then personnaly joined the crowd that assembeld to greet the General.

What Lies Ahead

Franks believes that five years is a realistic timeline for the U.S. to be involved in Iraq, noting that the country has to dig itself out of a "30-year hole." He says, "It takes time to solve problems when you're talking about 25 to 26 million people."

Looking back, Franks believes that the world is "far safer" without Saddam Hussein. And he is distressed by what he calls "the U.S.'s flogging of itself." Says Franks: "America is not responsible for terrorism against America. Terrorists are responsible."

Meanwhile, Franks hopes that we continue to fight terrorists outside the U.S.: "If you want your grandchildren to grow up in an open society, we'd better deal with the problem as far away from here as possible, even though that's not easy or easily affordable." He adds: "The blessings of this country are not by accident."

General Franks listens to a reporters question during an interview held in Afghanistan.

This Force Is Ready

In this adaptation from his book, American Soldier, General Franks recalls the tense moments before the order was given to begin the Iraq War.

I leaned forward in a leather chair watching the blank video projection screen at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. After a flicker of static, the White House Situation Room snapped into focus.

President George W. Bush sat between Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Powell at the head of the mahogany table. The five other members of the National Security Council sat along the sides.

The men's dark suits were well cut. Condoleezza Rice wore a tailored jacket. They could have been a corporate board, but the subject of this teleconference was not profit or loss. The topic was war.

It was March 19, 2003. If the President gave me the order, Coalition soldiers and Marines would attack across the Iraqi border in a matter of hours.

Their mission was to topple one of the most dangerous and repressive dictatorships in the world, the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein.

One by one, Coalition commanders reported to the President on the readiness of our forces.

Meanwhile, all across the theater of war, our young men and women were pulling on their hot, protective suits before "saddling up" in the rest of their combat gear. Intelligence reports suggested that Iraqi forces had been armed with nerve and mustard gas — and possibly weaponized anthrax and botulism toxins.

Safeguarding the kids in my command to the maximum degree possible while accomplishing the mission was a responsibility I took very seriously. But in the coming hours, no matter how well prepared, some of these brave young people would be killed or wounded.

I had learned my first lessons about war's harsh reality in the rice paddies of Vietnam 35 years earlier. Tonight, as our soldiers and Marines bulldozed through the thick sand on the Iraqi border, they would be ready to shed their blood.

I would watch the battle in my air-conditioned command center, scanning a wall of digital maps, but in my mind I would also be riding in those Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. In my mind, I'd choke on the dust and diesel fumes and smell the bitter sweat of fear.

When the last commander finished his report, I spoke again, aware of the historic moment. "Mr. President, this force is ready."

"All right," the President said. "For the sake of peace in the world and security for our country and the rest of the free world and for the freedom of the Iraqi people, as of this moment I will give Secretary Rumsfeld the order necessary to execute Operation Iraqi Freedom."

"Tommy," the President added, his voice firm. "May God bless the troops."

The 7000 miles separating me from the White House vanished. I felt the impact of the President's invocation. "Mr. President," I answered. "May God bless America."

I saluted, and the Commander-in-Chief returned the salute.

I paused, climbing the stairs to my plane. The President had just ordered me to go to war. The troops were ready. The question in my mind was, "Am I ready?"

My thoughts cast back to the small towns of the Southwest where I'd grown up. It was this environment, my family, my friends and my faith that had formed my values, my character. It was these elements that had made me who I was, years before I ever put on a uniform.

I knew success in the campaign ahead would depend more on character, sense of purpose and values — the nation's, the President's, my own and the troops' — than on raw military power.

Adapted from American Soldier, by Gen. Tommy Franks (with Malcolm McConnell), copyright ©2004, published by ReganBooks/HarperCollins.

Lyric Wallwork Winik. August 1, 2004. The General Has His Say. PARADE Magazine. ‹http://www.parade.com/›

American Soldier Few individuals have the chance to contribute so much of themselves to theAmerican story as General Tommy Franks. In American Soldier, he captures it all. The Commander in Chief of the United States Central Command from July 2000 through July 2003, General Tommy Franks made history leading American and Coalition forces to victory in Afghanistan and Iraq -- the decisive battles that launched the war on terrorism. General Franks retraces his journey from a small-town boyhood through a lifetime of military service -- including his heroic tour as an Artillery officer in Vietnam, where he was wounded three times. Drawing on military records declassified for this book, Franks offers the first true insider's account of the war on terrorism. He puts you in the Operations Center for the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom just weeks after 9/11, capturing its uncertain early days and the historic victory that followed. When President Bush focused world attention on the threat of Iraq, Franks seized the moment to implement a bold new vision of joint warfare in planning Operation Iraqi Freedom. Rejecting Desert Storm-style massive troop deployment in favor of flexibility and speed, Franks was questioned by the defense establishment -- including Secretary of State Colin Powell. Yet his vision was proven on the ground: Within three weeks, Baghdad had fallen. Franks describes the covert diplomacy that helped secure international cooperation for the war, and speaks frankly of intelligence shortcomings that endangered our troops, and of the credible WMD threats that influenced every planning decision. He offers an unvarnished portrait of the "disruptive and divisive" Washingtonbureaucracy, and a candid assessment of the war's aftermath. Yet in the end, as American Soldier demonstrates, the battles in Afghanistan and Iraq remain heroic victories -- wars of liberation won by troops whose valor was "unequalled," Franks writes, "by anything in the annals of war."

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