The Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy.

His last Army post was as the Commander of the United States Central Command overseeing United States Armed Forces operations in a 25-country region including the Middle East. He also commanded the 84th Armored Engineer Company and served as Regimental Assistant S-3 during this tour. On March 26 2008 he was elected to the board of directors of Chuck E.

S. Tommy Ray Franks (born June 17 1945) is a retired general in the United States Army. general leading the attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan in response to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon in 2001.