I don't know if Adm. William Fallon quit or was pushed out as head of the U.S. Central Command, but he left today. Unless he's decided to take his sensible opposition to loose talk of a possible attack on Iran public, it looks like a fairly ominous sign to me. Now it may be that this article in Esquire made the administration think he's already gone too public even though they don't plan to be more active militarily against Iran. But a voice of reason is gone from within the top circles of the military. My strong impression is that most of the military is as opposed to the idea ofg attacking Iran as Adm. Fallon is, but this administration has a record of finding people to promote who will go along with administration plans -- see Petraeus as the savior.
As to Petraeus, although there's little question that violence has declined, although there are reasons to doubt just how responsible the surge has been, that decline leveled off in November and has not declined much since. Today a suicide bomber killed five Americans, another bombing killed three more.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I'm optimistic. Juan Cole thinks this has more to do with Iraq than Iran. But, no mistaking: Admiral Fallon was the ‘good cop’. Now, for the next 10 months anyway, all we have are the bad cops and the bad guys. Good night and good luck with that.
Fallon was unusual in that, while in uniform, he was actually conducting public diplomacy.
Post a Comment