*** War on Terror

NewsMax, a right-wing news site, is running an article about recent comments made by Tommy Franks. According to NewsMax:

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.

This is a scary and revealing claim (although it is something that I have been predicting myself). However, I have read the actual Franks quotes themselves, and I'm not quite sure that they support the NewsMax lead. Read them for yourself and see what you think:

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.”

So is NewsMax just trying to be provactive with some ambiguous quotes, or is Franks admitting to the possibility of a military coup and/or imposition of martial law in the event of a big terrorist event?
- posted by David @ 10:01 AM