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 Support The DrudgeReport; Visit Our Advertisers  Commander of U.S. Forces in Iraq Wants Lower Profile Than Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf Sun Mar 09 2003 08:55:07 ET Army Gen. Tommy Franks "thought that [Gen. Norman] Schwarzkopf cut way too high a profile during the Gulf War," a military subordinate who has worked on Franks� Centcom staff tells TIME. "He thinks it�s tawdry." "Like any good soldier, the general knows when to keep his head down," write TIME's Michael Duffy and Mark Thompson in TIME's cover story. In an interview with TIME, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld heaped praise on his field marshal for being open to new ideas. "He�s intelligent and quick, and he knows his stuff," Rumsfeld said. "He has total ownership over these matters. He cares only about what is the most effective way to put military power on a military target�that�s not the norm, necessarily." "Rumsfeld loves the spotlight; Franks is only too happy to stay out of it," write Duffy and Thompson. TIME calls Franks "quick, funny, very private, ferociously hardworking and, everyone says, a rare leader of soldiers, particularly enlisted troops. He is also, at least in public, the consummate strong and silent type, the good soldier who shuns the limelight in marked contrast to some of his predecessors at Central Command." Franks, 57, head of CENTCOM (US Central Command), leaves Tampa, FL for Qatar this week. At a Friday lunch with hundreds of troops behind his headquarters, Franks sang first at the mike, a version of an old Charley Pride tune called (Is Anyone Going to) San Antone? As Franks warbled through�"Rain dripping off the brim of my hat"�the crowd cheered. "We have to take our jobs very seriously," the general said, before turning the mike over to country singer Neal McCoy, "but we should never take ourselves too seriously." Franks went to high school in Midland, Texas with Laura Bush, but she does not remember him. Their high school principal told Franks at a recent reunion, "You weren't the brightest bulb in the socket." Franks reply: "Ain't this a great country?" Franks' wife of 33 years, Cathy, kissed him goodbye in Tampa every morning with the charge, "Go make the world safe for democracy." END |
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