The Tommy Franks Statement

Buried deep in a Boston
Globe article mainly devoted to John Kerry's denunciation of President
George Bush's handling of Iraq is a riposte by retired CENTCOM Commander Tommy
Franks.

Kerry, who in October 2002 voted in favor of a congressional resolution
authorizing the war, said Bush rushed into Iraq without the backing of allies,
preparing a postwar plan, or properly equipping US forces -- ''None of which I
would have done."

''Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator who deserves his own special place
in hell," Kerry told a supportive audience assembled at New York
University, downtown from where Bush is to address the United Nations General
Assembly today. ''But that was not, in itself, a reason to go to war. The
satisfaction we take in his downfall does not hide this fact: We have traded a
dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure."

He blamed Bush for ''colossal failures of judgment." ''This is
stubborn incompetence," he said.

Then there's the rebuttal by Franks. The Globe quotes Franks as saying:
"General Tommy Franks, who commanded the 2002 invasion of Iraq, criticiz(ed)
Kerry directly. ''Senator Kerry's contradictions on Iraq are the wrong signal
to send to our troops on the ground, to our coalition partners, to the Iraqi
people, and to the terrorists seeking our destruction," Franks said."
But the Globe omitted the more important part of Frank's statement, whose text
can be found at FreeRepublic.

ARLINGTON, VA � Gen. Tommy Franks (Ret.) today issued the following
statement on Senator Kerry's speech today on Iraq:

"Senator Kerry's contradictions on Iraq are the wrong signal to send
to our troops on the ground, to our coalition partners, to the Iraqi people
and to the terrorists seeking our destruction. On the eve of Prime Minister
Allawi's visit to the United States, Senator Kerry today said that America and
the world are 'less secure' now that Saddam Hussein is out of power.

"The American people disagree and last December, so did Senator Kerry.
At the time he said that those who believe the world was safer with Saddam
Hussein in power 'don't have the judgment to be president.' I agree."

The Globe casts Frank's disagreements with Kerry as procedural --
"sending the wrong message" But Frank's critique goes deeper: they are
substantive disagreements with the assertion that the removal of Saddam
Hussein did not make the America and the world safer. It is a strategic
appreciation diametrically opposed to that of Senator Kerry's.

The problem with arguments from authority is that one can find citations to
suit any book. This is often the last resort of those who argue that Iraq, in
despite of statistical evidence to contrary, has trapped the US in a strategic
cul-de-sac. In that respect Tommy Franks is to those unimpeachable sources as
the critics of the 60 Minutes expose were to CBS's document experts. Not
the last word, but planters of the first seed of doubt in the Anybody-But-Bush
faith. In the end, the truth of a proposition comes not from assertions of
authority, but the thing in itself. People will judge Iraq from its effect on
their own lives and render their verdict accordingly.

Update: The Enemy in Iraq

Dan Darling has more detailed breakdown of the enemy order of battle in
Iraq. A sample:

Zarqawi's coalition

In addition to his own al-Tawhid
wal Jihad organization, Zarqawi has also formed an impressive coalition of
Iraqi and foreign Islamist groups under his direction to challenge US control
of Iraq. Ansar al-Islam is a nominal part of this coalition, but they are far
more autonomous than these others that I'm about to list because they've been
established in Iraq longer and have equal or greater clout with Zarqawi's
erstwhile allies in the IRGC. Based on what I know, Zarqawi's coalition is
made up of Jaish Ansar al-Sunnah, Jaish-e-Islami al-Iraqi, Jaish Mohammed,
Harakat al-Salafiyyah al-Jihadiyyah, Takfir wal Hijra, Kateebat al-Jihad
al-Islamiyyah, Islamic Resistance Front, Saad ibn Abi Waqqas, Kateebat
al-Mujahideen, Kateebat al-Zilzal al-Mujahid, Kateebat Salah al-Din, and Jund
al-Sham as well as the international brigades of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harakat
ul-Jihad-e-Islam, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

It would be good to diagram.