Very interesting Kerry campaign release using Tommy Franks quotes

[Cocoa]

starts out with a bunch of Franks quotes supporting Kerry, and knocking down Bush talking points.

But the best part is using Franks's colorful criticisms of Doug Feith.

Bottom line: how can Franks possibly support Bush?

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=36569


<snip>

Gen. Tommy Franks on the Bush Defense Team

Douglas Fieth: Master of off the wall questions

"I certainly had no problem with (JCS Vice Chairman General) Pete Pace sitting in. He was on of the brightest, most energetic officers I knew. But Doug Feith was another matter. No one could deny Feith's academic achievements; he had a magna cum laude bachelor's from Harvard and another magna from Georgetown Law School. But Feith was a theorist whose ideas were often impractical; among some uniformed officers in the Building, he had a reputation for confusing abstract memoranda with results in the field. My dealings with him left me ambivalent: I liked him personally, but I wasn't convinced that the Secretary (Rumsfeld) was always well-served by his advice. Feith was a master of the off-the-wall question that rarely had relevance to operational problems. ...But I had little time - or inclination - to answer Feith's "mind teasers." So I generally ignored his contributions...and Rumsfeld never allowed Feith to interfere in my business. I was always thankful for that." (pg. 330)

Feith: Dumbest ----ing guy on the planet

"I called all the 'brains' together in the SCIF one afternoon in January. A good part of their discontent stemmed from the extra stress involved in compartmentalizing the planning to help prevent leaks, which would derail the process. Only a small group of senior CENTCOM officers knew significant aspects of the evolving concept, and only four of us had the full picture. Our people were isolated from each other, running on a treadmill in a vacuum. Not good for a tightly knit team. 'Okay,' I said, standing in front of the room. 'Here's the deal, guys,. I know OSD - Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Feith - are demaning a lot. But they are not the enemy. Don't start thinking good guys - bad guys. We're all on the same side.' They could see I was serious. 'I'll worry about OSD, all of them - including Doug Feith, who's getting a reputation around here as the dumbest ----ing guy on the planet,'..." (pg. 362)

Advisors have a deep commitment to their own ideas
"But in many cases these advisers' (Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz; Deputy Secretary of State Rich Armitage; Doug Feith, the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy; and their senior staff members (listed on pg. 375)) deep and inflexible commitment to their own ideas was disruptive and divisive, as they sought to influence their bosses - and ultimately George W. Bush - with respect to Iraq policy." (pg. 375-6)

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