Admiral Fallon Resigns as Commander CENTCOM
He wasn’t Commander for quite a year, but evidently his sin was that he was a Commander on the Ground™ that BushCo did not want to listen to.
Brandon Friedman at Vets Voice has the story.
Admiral Fallon pretty frequently pushed back on the Iran belligerence coming out of the White House, and last spring declined to send an additional carrier group to the Gulf. Fortunately for Fallon, his current boss is Bob Gates, who won’t indulge in the kind of jihad Rumsfeld let loose on General Shinseki.
You can certainly take this as proof that even the White House doesn’t believe its Commanders on the Ground™ mantra. They are firmly running not just policy but ops and they are still doing it to play to FOX news and to prop up their rapidly sinking party. They are certainly not playing this to win or even to settle the region. Vague assertions of withdrawal not being the answer just remind all of the rest of us that there are no better answers on the table. Certainly no better answers that require the Iraqi government to get itself organized and step up and make the sacrifices that our guys and the American taxpayers have been making on their behalf mean something.
Tags: Bush's FUBAR War
TPM has it that Fallon was simply too sane to work for Bush. That is not hyperbole of a dig a Bush but a simple fact. Fallon accepts reality and does not seem to put ideology above every other concern. That is a prerequisite to workign with Bush.
BTW – Welcome Cassandra. I was litteraly bleary eyed last night becuase of an eye appointment and didn’t catch that tis was your post.
Bush an Co have quite a body count. I don’t think we’ll really know what is going on in Iraq until he leaves office. But, then again, if McCain wins, we won’t know for another four years.
The truth shall set you free? With Bush the truth will get you fired.
Wonder if Fallon made a deal in regard to his stepping down?. His quotes seem to suggest that the media misinterpted what he meant, or… will he wait a while and then start speaking out.
I just cliched through to read the Esquire excerpts…Oh crap.
Bush has 10 months left to get his war with Iran on and he seems determined to do it.
This is a very bad sign for the people who have been pushing for trade and other peaceful ways of resolving the conflicts we have with Iran and other nations. My only hope is that we do not make the mistake of thinking another war there is going to bring about a much needed reformation in the country let alone the region. Reformation of a regime is only going to come about when we act as a good cop. To do that we were moving along well under Bill Clinton’s foreign policy; and now we are pushing people to rally around the regime? Fallon probably saw that and thought it made as little sense as I do. If we need to deal with the Oil Bourse problem, we should do so without bombs, we should sit down and begin negotiations. We have to ensure that we get people to NOT rally around the regime. Normal people there I am sure want no part of a conflict either with the US or with anyone else they probably want to sit around watching CNN on their sattelite TV’s and try to get a Tivo system if they can afford it, if not, they are probably working in some bazzar selling stuff….and not paying any attetion. God there are some days when I cannot wait for a restoration of the bright liberal democrats in our country. Kissinger’s folks over there at the National Policy and foreign affairs group have said “we do not need nation building, we need nation razing…” I cannot ever accept that as a doctrine worthy of Americans, we did that one time before with American Indians and it was not such a good thing. We should not move backwards in our humanity to move forward into the future otherwise nobody is going to be laughing at the results. Think of the millions of millions of people who want nothing but to be left alone and have some modicum of a happy life here where they can pursue some level of happiness….the makority of people there want the same thing. Now we have the neo-conservatives telling us “happy people do not build empires…” tie that to the other quote and if this is the new reality of American life we are supposed to accept, it makes us look more like North Korea and less like America. Fallon disagreed with the adminsitration publically about this policy, and as a consequence had to be resigned.
Jaosn you are right. Like Nuclear war with another nation? I think and have a very bad feeling that we are about to learn about it- again….resource wars of the 21st century man. Get used to it, it is the new reality being imposed on us by an external threat… Sure. It is building the glorious conservative cultural revolution…and using the pentagon in a very agressive way. Many of those guys have PTSD after Sept. 11 so what you see is a giant fist coming down on anyone we identify as an “enemy” that includes our own dissenting generals.
“Anyone who is not with us is against us;” Josef Stalin….
This is a key bit from the TPM post:
By all accounts, the points of contention between Fallon and Bush administration officials centered on three points: 1) his belief that the indefinite occupation of Iraq is a disaster for the US military, 2) that diplomacy has a central role in American foreign and national security policy, 3) that war is not a credible policy for the US to pursue in dealing with Iran. The last of these was believed to be the key issue.
As Josh does note, the sign of relief that many felt that the grownups were back in charge of foreign/military policy seems to be premature.
Oh yes, and thanks, Jason! I am honored to have been invited here and will do my best not to break anything….
“Anyone who is not with us is against us;” Josef Stalin….
Sounds a lot like – “You’re either with us or against us in the fight against terror.”
Purveyors of false dichotomies….