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| Franks rejects top Pentagon post |
| 2003-05-13 |
| General Tommy Franks, who led US forces to victory in Afghanistan and Iraq, has turned down a promotion to army chief of staff. Gen Franks had promised his wife he would shortly retire and, after days of intense speculation in Washington, he has now declined the offer of the army's top post. The general has made no secret of his dislike of Washington and the power struggles and intrigue that dominate life there. His decision leaves the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, without a key ally in his long-running, and often bitter, campaign to reshape the US army from top to bottom. The present chief of staff, Gen Eric Shinseki, has been a lame duck for 18 months, since Rumsfeld aides leaked that he would be replaced. He won the war and now is keeping the wife happy. First one was easier! Gotta like this man. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 My tour in Vietnam was (mostly) inside a three-story air-conditioned, concrete-walled building, and my "day" ran from 7:30PM (1930hrs) to around 8:30-9:00 the next morning. Since I worked right next door to the Targeting office, I met quite a few of the ground-commanders in Vietnam. Most of them were quality people, and good commanders. The problem in Vietnam wasn't the local commanders, but the deadheads in Washington and Hawaii that made decisions without understanding anything about the type of combat being fought in Vietnam |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-05-13 17:01:58 |
| #4 I think General Franks thinks that "Baghdad Bob" would be easier to listen to than Tom Daschle |
| Posted by: SOG475 2003-05-13 15:21:41 |
| #3 PD- There were guys like him above the rank of major in Viet Nam - see Col. David Hackworth's book "About Face" |
| Posted by: Spot 2003-05-13 08:09:25 |
| #2 Franks is a class act. Even when he could've scored PR points by playing along with the not-enough-boots-on-the-ground crowd (no matter which side he was really on), he kept his mouth shut and did the job with what he had at hand. Brilliantly. Wish there had been guys like him above rank of Major in VietNam. |
| Posted by: PD 2003-05-13 05:35:41 |
| #1 I think General Franks thinks that "Baghdad Bob" would be easier to listen to than Tom Daschle |
| Posted by: SOG475 5/13/2003 3:21:41 PM |