General Franks & General Petraeus "two Outstanding Contemporary Leaders"

General Tommy Franks

On 7 October 2001, President Bush informed the American public that he had ordered the military to attack al Qaeda terrorist camps and Taliban military installations. Bush authorized Operation Enduring freedom after a definitive link was established between al Qaeda and Afghanistan. Bush stated the intent of operation was "to disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations" and to bring terrorist to justice. This task relied on General Tommy Franks commander of Central Command and known as the "Soldier's General" to translate the president's intent into operational objectives.

Franks stated in late October 2001 that the Central Command mission in Operation Enduring Freedom was the destruction of the al Qaeda terrorist network and the removal of the Taliban leadership. The desired end state the removal of the Taliban leadership, disrupt al Qaeda use of Afghanistan as training and staging base, avert a humanitarian disaster, and enhance the stability of the new government. General Franks required a concept that was capable of reaching al Qaeda's center of gravity which was the remote strongholds in the ungoverned and inaccessible areas of Afghanistan and later Major General Franklin L. Hagenbeck correctly indentified the caves in the remote mountains of Afghanistan as in deed being the center of gravity.

General franks knew that the al Qaeda network in Afghanistan was able to operate without fear of interdiction as long as the caves and remote strongholds existed. The al Qaeda critical vulnerability was the Taliban leadership. A strong central government in Afghanistan might attempt to regain control of the ungoverned regions. The vulnerability of the Taliban became one of the focal point for General franks when he developed his logical lines of operation. Franks established nine logical lines of operation for Operation Enduring Freedom. Each line of operation was focused upon a decisive point with Afghanistan, and linked to the end state. The key decisive point were the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership, the Taliban military, the al Qaeda training bases, and the road network. With the repressive structure of the Afghan government, the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership controlled policy. The logical lines of operations of destroying the Taliban military, operational fires, direct attack of the leadership of al Qaeda and the Taliban, and humanitarian aid are the focus of analysis. The destruction of the Taliban was achieved through the combination of conventional and unconventional warfare. The opposition groups, advised by U.S. Special Forces, with integrated operational fires conducted the bulk of the ground assault against the Taliban military. Operational fires used targeting information from ground forces to attack the enemy from the air. The final logical line of operation of concern was humanitarian aid. Afghanistan was already facing humanitarian crisis before Operation Enduring Freedom, General Franks capitalized that need and provided the necessary aid in order to earn the Afghans trust. The ninth and final logical line of operation developed by Franks was operational maneuver. It was the only logical line of operation not employed at the onset of Operation Enduring Freedom. Operational maneuver called for the introduction of convention forces in the event that unconventional warfare failed to achieve the decisive destruction of the Taliban military. Although conventional forces were an option, there were a number of problems associated with their use. The forced entry of large formations of ground forces would require the assistance of a neighboring country. General Franks was able to overcome this obstacle thru diplomacy with neighboring countries such as Turkey and Pakistan.

At the beginning of the war General Franks was criticized for being to conventional but sooner than later demonstrated that he was a master of tactical warfare by being able to implement unconventional strategies with the implementation of Special Forces and coordinated air strikes in conjunction with the Air Force and Navy in order to maximize combat power and at the same time minimize unnecessary threat to our Soldiers. His use of diplomacy together with broad logistical experience together with impeccable intelligence enabled him to conduct full spectrum of operations that resulted in the defeat of the