Interview With U.S. Commander
March 13 -- Following are excerpts from an interview with Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of U.S. Central Command, by ABCNEWS' Peter Jennings. The interview was conducted at Franks' headquarters in Qatar.
PETER JENNINGS: From a purely military point of view, would you like to have more time before the battle begins?
GEN. TOMMY FRANKS: I think, first off, as you know, a decision has not been made that battle will begin and — it's a cliché, it's also true — that the person who likes war least is the soldier and I'm no different. So one, I think, hopes to never have a war.
On the other hand, one is wise to not try to turn hope into a strategy, and so I think what we do every day in the military is get ourselves better and better and better prepared for training and other sorts of approaches....
JENNINGS: Well, now, I ask you this, because, you know, there's a huge political delay in the talks again, and deadlines get extended, and I wonder whether or not, from your point of view, it isn't safer to have a delay. For one thing, in your case, you have the possibility of getting the 4th Division in from the north. You get the 101st to get their equipment. In other words, does time, in some respects, work for you? People always say you can hardly wait to go.
FRANKS: Well, Peter, I think it depends on who you talk to. If you talk to a young trooper on the line, most young troopers on the line will say, "Let's go." You know, sooner is better than later.
In order to answer your question about whether a delay is good for me with respect to deploying units and the positioning of units and all of that, [that] assumes an insight into our ongoing planning, the validity of which I'm not prepared to accept. In order to say, "Well, wouldn't it be better if we waited for some deployment or something to happen?" assumes an insight into the planning of what is in fact necessary to do, what we may be asked to do, and it's hard for me to answer that sort of question.
Are There Enough U.S. Troops?
