[Vision2020] The Follies of Fundraising (Bob Schieffer)

[Tom Hansen]

>From Bob Schieffer's closing commentary on today's (January 20, 2008) "Face
the Nation" -

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The Follies of Fundraising
By Bob Schieffer

After General Tommy Franks invaded Iraq with a force so small he didn't even
have enough troops to guard the ammunition dumps that Saddam Hussein
abandoned, I questioned the strategy. 

Sure, he was under pressure from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who was
determined to prove a small modern force could do what larger forces used to
do. 

But we don't hire our generals to rubber-stamp every idea their civilian
bosses come up with. We hire them for their expertise on military matters,
and Franks went along with a plan that violated the first rule of warfare:
never invade unless you have an overwhelming advantage and a firm idea of
what to do next. 

Franks has since retired, but I have questions now that go far beyond his
military expertise. 

Congressional investigators have discovered he charged a professional
fundraiser $100,000 to use his name to raise money for wounded soldiers.

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"Charity Draws Fire for Paying Generals" (Army Times)
http://tinyurl.com/23ujzb

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Which leads me to ask: What kind of PERSON would insist, or even ALLOW
himself, to be paid to raise money for those who were wounded while serving
under him? 

Franks says he severed his connection to the fundraiser when he realized
most of the money he helped raise went to the fundraiser, not the troops.
But doesn't he owe the troops a little more than that? 

Here are two names he may want to add to his rolodex: The Walter Reed
Society and the Yellow Ribbon Fund. 

They are mostly volunteers and they'll see that whatever help he wants to
give will get to those who need it - the troops - so many of whom served in
his command.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime." 
 
--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.