The Follies Of Fundraising

(CBS)  Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

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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.

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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E-mail Face the Nation.
By Bob Schieffer

[valendug]

This is the same "brave" general who tried to run the war in Iraq from an air-conditioned office in Florida.

[valendug]

This is the same "brave" general who tried to run the war in Iraq from an air-conditioned office in Florida.

[valendug]

This is the same "brave" general who tried to run the war in Iraq from an air-conditioned office in Florida.

[valendug]

This is the same "brave" general who tried to run the war in Iraq from an air-conditioned office in Florida.

[noloyalisti]

We need an immediate war tax to pay the staggering costs of caring for the vets. The right wingers will be more than happy to pay the tax. The middle of the roaders will finally get off the couch and start protesting the fascist invasion and occupation. The left will be happy because the masses will finally be helping them.

[chad55555]

The one thing you learn fast in the military,you get rank by brown noseing and kissing the right shoes.Not by your deeds or what you know.I never knew an officer I had any respect for or trusted with my or the men under me''s lives . That''s why in special forces enlisted men would rather do the job,then have an officer getting everyone killed. WHAT FRANKS IS DOING NOW IS NO DIFFERENT THEN WHAT POWELL AND THE OTHERS HAVE DONE IN THE PAST. THE MILITARY HAS CHANGED NOW IT''S MORE LIKE AN AFRICAN OR MEXICAN ARMY.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Retired General Tommy Franks charged a professional fundraiser to use his name in raising money for wounded troops."

Probably because he knew that the money was going to the pockets of the parasitic scum running the scam, and not to the soldiers.

Even though he took a commission for helping those carrion eating buzzards, for which I don''t blame him, he is still amongst the lowest slime for taking part in helping these vampires scam people.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by jake20076 at 02:01 AM : Jan 21, 2008

Your pimp service has been reported, creep.

Take it to the porn sites, where it belongs

[knyghtwolf]

The truth about fundraising is this, find a cure, you are out of business, PERIOD. There will NEVER be a cure for anything; heart disease, cancer, lukemia, diabetes, or MS because there is NO MONEY for the business if CURES are found. When did you last give to the Whooping Cough or Small Pox Foundations? When a TRUE cure is found, the business of that particular charity is GONE, so many people actually work their entire lives for these foundations and to find a cure means NO MORE JOB. The charities mentioned in the article are likened to the Red Cross, where roughly about $.05 of every dollar goes to the actual charity it was intended. Start dropping nickles instead of dollars and they WILL get the message.

[yamuttya]

It''s hard to find any part of the Bush administration that isn''t in total disgrace.
The world looks upon a very dark time in America.