Since U Been Gone, I Can Bomb For The First Time
Admiral William Fallon, the bulwark between Bush and a war with Iran, is resigning as head of U.S. Central Command. According to the tidbit I just saw on CNN, apparently Secretary Bob Gates said that Fallon quit for the most postmodern of reasons: Fallon thought a recent, highly-controversial Esquire article portrayed him as in opposition to Bush's bellicosity over Iran. There's been fierce debate over what Fallon's substantive views actually are in the defense community, and I can report that knowledgeable people on military listservs I'm on generally believe that the Esquire piece was overblown but generally accurate. For a good summation of Fallon, the Esquire piece, and the resulting furor, check out this Tom Ricks piece in the Post from last week.
Gates said in a press conference just now that no one should think the move reflects any substantive change in policy. That sure won't be how Teheran sees it. The Iranians will consider Fallon's resignation to indicate that the bombing begins in the next five minutes. If the new Central Command chief is General Stanley McChrystal, who ran special operations in Iraq until recently (read: responses to Iranian activities), that'll be a pretty solid indicator that Bush is going to make the most of his last months in office. McChrystal just got a different command, but that, of course, was before the military's most prestigious combatant command just opened up. Teheran will look verrrrry closely at who gets the job.
Update: Shoulda mentioned that Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, Fallon's deputy, will take over as acting CINC -- sorry, combatant commander -- on March 31. Fallon can't even stick around until his replacement is confirmed? Very suspicious. This sounds like a resignation on principle. Either that or Fallon got caught with "Kristen."
Comments:
Posted 03/11/2008 05:25pm with
The last of the great American constitution supporting military officers is gone. This is some bad juju! Okay kids, get your affairs in order and get ready to go to war. Here comes the draft and here comes another freaking war. Compliments of the Bush regime and Amerika’s fascist corporate war machine. Regime? Machine? Ah hell, it’s all the same crap!
Posted 03/11/2008 06:16pm with
Another right-on comment from skulzfontaine!!! A beautiful Amerikan boy certainly, but who is he really? Perhaps Paul Knassner? Marty Pepper?
Posted 03/11/2008 07:02pm with
Unless there is a mass resignation effort by senior officers, it appears as though Bush/Cheney Corp. are going after huge third quarter profits – by the mil/industrial complex market share – next acquisition – Iran.
There is one surefire and quick way to stop it – Congress can defund and withhold funds for combat operations wherever and to the extent it chooses. As if that would happen with them in the thumbscrews of B/C Corp’s surveillance sweep!