Tommy Franks, fair and balanced

Finally, a truly fair and balanced commentator! Gen. Tommy Franks says:

"I really work hard to stay away from hyperbole," Franks said. "People ask me all the time about `Fahrenheit 9/11' and then others will ask me about some equally vitriolic view at the end of the continuum on the conservative side."

"I believe that life really is someplace between the two," Franks said, "and so I am not a fan of hyperbole, whether it is for or against Senator Kerry or George W. Bush."

The main lead for the story is that Gen. Franks says that John Kerry is "absolutely" qualified to be the commander in chief. Franks rejects criticism by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, about which Kevin blogged earlier. I think Franks is pretty credible here. Criticism of Kerry's war record has always struck me as misguided; sure, he may have exaggerated his exploits, and he definitely over-relies upon his Vietnam service. . . . But, it's indisputable that he volunteered to go fight in Vietnam. I don't mean for that to be an implicit criticism of President Bush (the way that Kerry has, by equating the National Guard with other actions such as dodging the draft), just a pure comment about Kerry.

But what I really like about Franks' comment is that he lumps "Fahrenheit 9/11" in with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Now I've neither seen "F 9/11" nor read the Swift Veterans for Truth book, so Franks could be wrong about one or the other, but on its face, his comment strikes the right chord with me.

Comments

[Law Monkey]

"But, it's indisputable that he volunteered to go fight in Vietnam."

It's indisputatble that John Kerry volunteered to go to Vietnam, but I'm not so sure he volunteered for hazardous duty (that being said, I repect whatever he did more than Bush's dubious stint in the Texas Air National Guard). Still, I think it is important to keep the facts and timeline straight (by way of the Boston Globat at http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml). If someone could e-mail me with instructions on those neat text hyperlinks, I would appreciate it!

"Kerry initially hoped to continue his service at a relatively safe distance from most fighting, securing an assignment as "swift boat" skipper. While the 50-foot swift boats cruised the Vietnamese coast a little closer to the action than the Gridley had come, they were still considered relatively safe.

"I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."

"But two weeks after he arrived in Vietnam, the swift boat mission changed -- and Kerry went from having one of the safest assignments in the escalating conflict to one of the most dangerous. Under the newly launched Operation SEALORD, swift boats were charged with patrolling the narrow waterways of the Mekong Delta to draw fire and smoke out the enemy. Cruising inlets and coves and canals, swift boats were especially vulnerable targets."

[Cliff Cloonan]

As a military officer who served this country for 30 years and who was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to work directly for then MG Tommy Franks I am frankly offended by Professor Bainbridge's notion that retired military officers,irrespective of their rank or political party, don't have the right and indeed the responsibility as citizens, to engage in the political process once they leave the service. Tommy Franks was the most unpretentious, even tempered, honest, straight-speaking general officer I ever met; he carefully measures everything he says and I never knew him to speak anything but the truth as he knew it. In my interactions with him I never heard him endorse any political party or candidate while he was on active duty-- but I will say unequivocally if anyone has earned the right to engage in the political process he most certainly has. GEN(ret) Franks has continued to impress me now that he has left the military; we have truly been blessed as a country to have had such a man serve as one of our most senior military officers.

Cliff Cloonan