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Leadership
Al Kamen, via Michael Crowley, offers up this spectacular piece of Americana: there is a General Tommy Franks Leadership Institute and Museum.
If it merges with the Bernard Madoff Leadership Institute and Museum to form the Bernie-Tommy Leadership Institute and Museum, it could brand itself with the motto: It Looked Great Until We Tanked.
But that, of course, would be unfair to Gen. Franks. Madoff knew what he was doing.
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They could offer the Alan Greenspan Prize in Economic Leadership!
June 29, 2009 8:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
This seems like a snotty cheap shot, General Gitlin. Franks was no genius, but he didn't start the blasted Iraq War. And he was pressured by Rumsfeld into fighting the war with fewer troops than he thought necessary.
June 29, 2009 10:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe if some of our leaders had spoken up, and fought the domestic enemy within, the war may have ended as quick as it had started.
Go watch the film Valkyrie_(film) and witness what military personnel with testosterone almost accomplished.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valkyrie_(film)
It would have been good for OUR country, if Franks had been frank, with the people and Country he was supposed to serve.
Does his inaction make him a co-conspirator against the Constitution? Only history will be the Judge. Was his pension worth it?
June 29, 2009 11:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe if some of our leaders had spoken up, and fought the domestic enemy within, the war may have ended as quick as it had started.
Go watch the film Valkyrie_(film) and witness what military personnel with testosterone almost accomplished.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valkyrie_(film)
It would have been good for OUR country, if Franks had been frank, with the people and Country he was supposed to serve.
Does his inaction make him a co-conspirator against the Constitution? Only history will be the Judge. Was his pension worth it?
June 29, 2009 11:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry or the double post
June 29, 2009 11:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agree that this is a bit of a snide post.
But there is another angle to this - Tommy Franks nowadays sits on the Bank of America board. Anyone think Ken Lewis with his post-Merrill acquisition problems is taking advice from General Franks on coping with buyer's remorse?
June 30, 2009 6:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am more interested in the Democrats showing more leadership right now...
Tommy Franks has been relegated to the history books.
June 30, 2009 11:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know about Franks but seeing a copy of Newt Gingrich's latest book, co-authored with his (current, I believe) wife, 5 Principles for a Successful Life: From Our Family to Yours, gave me a chuckle.
I don't know about his current wife. Maybe she is an entirely appropriate author. Newt has actually done quite a bit to help people who mostly did not especially need his help.
His public life has largely been about comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted.
I guess that's one definition of success.
I don't believe there is any truth to the rumor that one of the 5 principles is: "Dump your terminally ill wife like a hot potato, as it will remove a major impediment to moving quickly up the ladder of success."
July 2, 2009 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink