COUNTDOWN TO WAR: MILITARY MACHINE IS SET FOR CONFLICT: A bumpkin known as Pooh who'll mastermind the war; TOMMY FRANKS, A UNI DROPOUT 4-STAR GENERAL.

Byline: RICHARD WALLACE US Editor in Washington

THE military mastermind behind the invasion of Iraq is a country music-loving university dropout known affectionately to his grandchildren as Pooh.

Four-star general Tommy Franks, 57, should be sitting on his porch back home in Texas smoking his favourite cigar and sipping a margarita.

Instead, the golf-loving soldier is 30ft underground, directing battle operations in a nuclear bomb-proof bunker in Qatar.

When he was due to retire last summer, George Bush persuaded the taciturn 6ft 3in general to stay on for another year because he was one of the few senior US officers who actually got on with rough-edged Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld.

One defence official said: "Rummie takes a lot of handling and Tommy knows how to handle him.

"Basically let him blow off steam, then get on with the job."

Colleagues say Franks plays up his country bumpkin roots - his recent verdict on eating sushi for the first time was "fish bait on a plate" - to disguise a shrewd and sometimes manipulative character.

Rumsfeld himself admits: "Tommy's intelligent and quick and he knows his stuff. He cares only about what is the most effective way to put military power on a military target." Born in Oklahoma and brought up in Midland, Texas, he went to the same high school as the president's wife Laura, although they didn't know each other.

His retired headmaster remarked to the general at a recent reunion: "You were not the brightest bulb in the socket." Franks replied: "Ain't this a great country?"

Franks dropped out of the University of Texas to join the army as a private and saw action in Vietnam, where he was wounded three times and awarded three Purple Hearts for bravery. It's a period of his life he refuses to discuss.

After Vietnam he returned to college, then graduated into the officer corps, serving in Germany, Korea and the Gulf War, among other assignments, on his way to his current job as head of Central Command.

He is a devoted family man, married to his wife Cathy for 34 years. Their daughter, Jacqy, is married to an army major and has two children. Jacqy admits that having a four star general as a father takes some getting used to.

She says: "I know the man who is Pooh to his grandchildren, who builds Lego spaceships and plays Santa Claus."

Franks, who earns pounds 100,000 a year, was recently at the centre of an

investigation after accusations that his wife sat in on classified briefings and billed her travel arrangements to the Pentagon. He was cleared.

His day starts at 4am with 30 minutes on the treadmill accompanied by country tunes or Fifties rock 'n' roll.

He then checks his emails before his first meeting at 6.30am.

Franks says the best part of his job today is being with the troops.

Whether at his HQ or in the field in any of the 25 countries that he's militarily responsible for, he seeks out soldiers, cracking jokes and even hugging them.

He says: "Here I am, 57 years old and still waiting to grow up. One thing I am sure of is that the kids who are doing this are a damn sight better than I was when I was that age."

And the worst part of the job? "It has to do with lives lost.

"It can be American troops, it can be coalition troops, it can be civilians, bystanders, kids. When they are killed, when they are maimed by mines - that is the worst part."

But he has no doubts about where the blame lies if the Iraqi campaign goes horribly wrong.

"If this doesn't go well, it's my fault because not a single thing I've asked for has not been granted," he says.

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