Gen. Franks Doubts Constitution Will Survive WMD Attack:
bq. 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.
bq. “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.”
bq. Franks ended his interview with a less-than-optimistic note. “It’s not in the history of civilization for peace ever to reign. Never has in the history of man. … I doubt that we’ll ever have a time when the world will actually be at peace.”
Well, there’s a cherry thought, isn’t it? While I’m forced to admit that I’ve had similar thoughts on occasion, with all due respect I think General Franks underestimates the people of the United States. While we can be lazy, self-indulgent, and self-obsessed quite a bit of the time, I’m convinced that there’s a point beyond which we simply won’t voluntarily surrender our rights. Looking back at the historical record, I think it far more likely that we’d elect to take draconian steps against our attackers to prevent future attacks than we would be to “hunker down” behind the imagined protections of a police state.
