Gen. Franks: Constitution will not survive terrorism

[ism]

Okay, this is coming from NewsMax, Fox News' abandoned crackbaby.

Gen. Tommy Franks says that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.

Franks, who successfully led the U.S. military operation to liberate Iraq, expressed his worries in an extensive interview he gave to the men’s lifestyle magazine Cigar Aficionado.

In the magazine’s December edition, the former commander of the military’s Central Command warned that if terrorists succeeded in using a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) against the U.S. or one of our allies, it would likely have catastrophic consequences for our cherished republican form of government.

Discussing the hypothetical dangers posed to the U.S. in the wake of Sept. 11, Franks said that “the worst thing that could happen” is if terrorists acquire and then use a biological, chemical or nuclear weapon that inflicts heavy casualties.

If that happens, Franks said, “... the Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we’ve seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy.”

Franks then offered “in a practical sense” what he thinks would happen in the aftermath of such an attack.

“It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world – it may be in the United States of America – that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event. Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution. Two steps, very, very important.”

Franks didn’t speculate about how soon such an event might take place.

Already, critics of the U.S. Patriot Act, rushed through Congress in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, have argued that the law aims to curtail civil liberties and sets a dangerous precedent.

But Franks’ scenario goes much further. He is the first high-ranking official to openly speculate that the Constitution could be scrapped in favor of a military form of government.

full article

I didn't know cigars were a male-only thing.

[yoMAMA]

I'd say we have an emperor system....... :retard:

[Blue dice]

Originally Posted by yoMAMA

I'd say we have an emperor system....... :retard:

If the reaction of the U.S. is to adopt a military authoritarian type government then the terrorists have already won. They will have exposed the tenuous/fragile nature of democracy and changed an entire system of government.

[Icepak]

Fucking terrorists...

[Danny]

The democracy is a fragile government style. It is a good economic type of government, but in war time situations it slows down the ability of the military to defend and to counter act certain things. Franks is right to a certain extent, martial law is something that would most likely need to be instituted, but martial law does not mean that the government will always be a military style authoratative government.

The main problem with fighting terrorism is that it is not a country, it is not a people, it is an underground group that is world wide and nobody really knows who is part of it and who is not. In the past it was easy, Germany, Japan, North Korea, Russia. Now it is a group of fundamentalists that are causing issues throughout the world. It is not Iraq, it is not Iran, it is not Angola, it is not Palestine. It is Iraqi's, Palestinians, Iranians, Angolans, Filipinos, Americans, and every other nationality that exist. There is not sure way of defeating terrorism. The problem is that one mans freedom fighter is another mans terrorist....

[Cipherous]

As the troubles between Israel and Palenstine continues to worsen, you can only expect things to get worse.

I don't think any amount of money could really dissuade any terrorist attacks. The only way maybe to compromise American liberty. ie, the government has access to anything in your life (which I am pretty sure they pretty much do).

reasons for terrorism:

Illegal immigration

Is the US going to crack down on illegal immigration? I am not sure, alot of immigrants constitute alot of the blue collar jobs in America and they keep the job market very competetive. Good for corporations, not so good for blue collared Americans.

Crisis in the Middle East, getting involved with Israel's issues and American colonization of Iraq.

This is the main reason why the Muslim extremists are so vehement against America. Pull out of Israel and there will be less reasons to attack. However, without Iraqi oil, America's oil supply in the near future will suffer. in 2080, the world's entire oil supply is supposed to run dry. With China and other 3rd world countries industrilizing, the demand and price for oil will only rise (at rapid pace I might add).

If some how we came up with cold fusion or an efficient way to ulitize hydrogen fuel cells, you'd be surprised how many foriegn affairs would be solved.

[Iconoclastic]

We're All Gonna Die!!!