April 7, 2003. Copyright, 2003, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Profile of U.S. forces commander General Tommy Franks
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, April 7, Graphic News:  They say it was Tommy Franks who decided to start the war early after a CIA tip-off about the whereabouts of Saddam. It was Franks who favoured a speedy surge forward into Iraq. And if AmericaÕs war goes badly wrong, it will be Franks who takes most of the flak. 

If, on the other hand, the war goes according to plan, the head of U.S. Central Command could serve in Baghdad as governor general. Though a Muslim is likely to be installed to run Iraq eventually, its people will first answer to a tall countryboy with a Texas drawl as slow as oil.

Either way, publicity-shy Franks, 57, is in the spotlight for a while to come. One reason may be that the Òmuddy bootsÓ soldier has enough in common with key figures in the current White House while not exactly being one of their own. Raised in the desert town of Midland, Franks went to high school with First Lady Laura Bush, dropped out of Texas University the first time round and joined the army, returning to study business after serving in Vietnam.

He took over CentCom, then in Florida, in 2001 and was catapulted into the public eye during the war on Afghanistan. Some pundits wondered how he kept his job after failing to bring Bin LadenÕs head on a plate, and the same will be asked if Saddam survives. But, unlike larger than life ÒStorminÓ Norman Schwarzkopf, who led U.S. troops in the Gulf in 1991, Franks has no truck with pandering to the media. ÒWe donÕt do body counts,Ó was one classic rebuff.

He is also hard to draw on anything like a military creed, though he did once say: ÒNo one hates war more than a soldier.Ó Franks has seen action -- plenty of it -- which puts him on one side of the schism in Donald RumsfeldÕs Pentagon. The Defence Secretary is said to find him Òtoo conventionalÓ, but then there are those who say Rumsfeld is merely an armchair general, and Franks is a highly intelligent strategist whose simple demeanour is just camouflage gear.
 
In his private life, Franks is said to be an exuberant joker with a colourful vocabulary and a love of country music, a family man who likes having wife Cathy around so much that he faces investigation for allowing her to be privy to classified information, and for not paying for her flights on his customised Boeing. Oh, and his granddaughters call him Pooh, after the Bear, which proves that even a soldierÕs soldier can have a soft spot. Aw shucks!
/ENDS