Editorial -

Top General Believes Any Major WMD Crisis
Would End America’s Democratic ‘Experiment’

 It’s been 227 years since America declared it’s independence, and 216 years since the Constitution was adopted. In that time, which is admittedly a short time in world history yet a long-time in the count of human lives, America’s democratic forms of government have matured and the country has prospered beyond what even the Founder’s could have dreamed of creating.

Yet is America’s democracy currently so fragile that any direct attack might overthrow the Constitution? Can American democracy be that weak, after all its tests and trials from the Revolution to the Civil War, through two World Wars and countless other battles, as well as the long darkness of the Cold War with its foreboding shadow of nuclear annihilation? One would think that even the supposition that American democracy is weak or not yet well grounded after such a history would be unpatriotic or ignorant, or both.

But U.S. Army General Tommy Franks apparently believes that to be the case.

The original commander when Iraq was invaded, Gen. Franks is a Texan like George Bush, the president who so quickly moved to restrict and diminish American liberties after the Twin Tower’s were attacked. General Franks recently retired to the Lone Star state, but in one of a series of interviews as he left his command position he made it clear that should the United States suffer large numbers of casualties by an attack using a ‘Weapon of Mass Destruction,’ (WMD), the Constitution would probably be discarded quickly in favor of a military form of government.

If a WMD ever strikes America, especially if terrorist sponsored, General Franks said, "the Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is (the) freedom and liberty we’ve seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy."*

How unfortunate that a top U.S. general has such little faith in America and Americans, or perhaps so little faith in the motives and goals of the current national leadership. And how unsettling that a senior officer so matter-of-factly sees such a scenario; could that be because there are contingency plans in place within the Pentagon for a military takeover?

And how is it that a democratic system of government that for more than 200 years has moved this nation forward, beyond all other countries and every other form of government, is still considered an "experiment?" How many millions of Americans in and out of uniform, in every period of the nation’s history, stood up against every kind of threat, including nuclear annihilation, and never gave a passing thought to foregoing democracy and the precepts of the Constitution? Are all those brave Americans, a great many of whom made huge sacrifices – including the ultimate sacrifice, the laying down of one’s life – simply to be overlooked and forgotten if the nation has the misfortune of a WMD attack?

Are Americans today that weak and facile? We don’t think so! That no great uproar was heard over the Bush Administration’s moves against American liberties through the USA Patriot Act and the Homeland Security legislation was due to the fact Americans were still stunned by the September 11^th attack, and didn’t fully realize what was being pushed through Congress.

Americans historically are slow to regroup, but when they do the force they develop has been shown to be more powerful than anything their opponents could ever muster. Why then should the current threat be different? Are the radical Muslims that much different than the fight-to-the-end Japanese, complemented by their Kamikaze strike forces? Or are they worse opponents than the criminal ideologues of the totally dedicated and bitter fighters of the German SS battalions? We don’t think so! We think they are less than those opponents, and their only fearsome aspect is their cowardice; that is, their amoral willingness to use sneak attacks against the general populace in the hopes of creating blind panic in the same manner as a kidnapper hopes to scare a parent. They are ruthless totalitarian thugs masquerading under a religious banner.

We are stronger than they are by a huge measure. We didn’t bow to the worst of all fears, total nuclear annihilation during the long Cold War! Why would we even consider giving up our democratic foundation in order to protect ourselves against such cowardly enemies as Hitler’s acolytes, the Islamo-fascists?

It is the view of The Bradley Report that Americans are much stronger than some people in military and government authority apparently believe.

It can only be hoped that Gen. Franks’ viewpoint is not representative of the thinking at the highest levels of the Pentagon, but his blunt candor should be a warning bell for all Americans.

Unfortunately, in our current political climate it is unlikely that anyone from the Executive Branch or from the GOP majority in Congress will challenge Gen. Franks or seek to investigate just how dangerous a situation he may have inadvertently revealed.

But Gen. Franks needs to be challenged; he needs to be asked to define his view and the foundation for such a view. There is no question that Gen. Franks is a patriotic, brave and dedicated officer, who served America well right up to his retirement this year, so there is every reason to ponder why he would hold such a viewpoint.