MACDILL AIR BASE, Florida — Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the U.S. Central Command, says that no matter where a problem emerges in the world, if America’s military is called on to handle it, “we win,” even as it fights a global war on terrorism.
In a rare interview exclusively for Knight Ridder Newspapers at his headquarters outside Tampa, Franks declared: “It doesn’t make any difference. You allude to Iraq. It could be North Korea. It can be any number of places. It doesn’t make any difference. If we do it at this point in American history, we win.”
Franks, who is in charge of U.S. military operations in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan, said that America’s forces are trained, equipped and ready as never before.
“In one respect we live in a crease in history. We found our own vulnerability on 9/11. Since then, we have come to grips with that reality at the same time we are finding new technologies, new capabilities, new tactics, techniques, procedures, new doctrines, new capacities for the use of military force.”
Franks predicted that if a decision is ever made to go to war with Iraq — “and I can tell you on the record that the president of the United States has not made a decision to do this” — an international coalition equal to the 35-nation one assembled for the 1991 war with Iraq would come together to join in the campaign.
Despite widespread speculation that rising desert heat in spring requires any invasion of Iraq to begin well before then, the general said his forces were not tied to any timetable.
— Joseph L. Galloway, Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
