Petraeus promoted -- Iran back on drawing board?

Gen. David Petraeus has been promoted to the position Adm. William Fallon resigned from/was pushed out of, that of head of the U.S. Central Command, which includes the Middle East and Afghanistan and Pakistan. (The very name Central Command is indicative of the fact that the U.S. is explicitly an imperial power, isn't it? But the term Homeland Security says the same thing.) Iraq has been Petraeus's proving ground, and he's proven to be Bush's favorite general, at least for now. I don't know if he is really is an "ass-kissing little chickenshit" climber as Adm. Fallon is said to have called him (Fallon denies it, but he's a Navy man after all), but he is certainly one of our more political generals, who knows how to ingratiate himself with the commander-in-chief.

I also don't know if Gareth Porter is correct in his opinion piece, suggesting that having Petraeus in the post formerly occupied by "Fox" Fallon, who famously vowed there would be no war with Iran on his watch, leaves Cheney in charge of Iran policy and a war with Iran much more likely. Can even a viper like Cheney be so irresponsible at a time when all the military people are saying the U.S. military is on the verge of being hollowed-out. Even to consider such foolishness is sign of an empire in decline.

Fallon retires -- will Iran war follow?

Here's a link to the piece I did for Antiwar.com on the retirement of Adm. William Fallon, a military leader who from what I can tell thought it was more important to serve his country than to continue to serve this administration. Almost as soon as he assumed leadership of the Central Command (CentCom) he said in public that a war with Iran would not occur on his watch. He had to know that the article in Esquire on his views would be viewed as close to insubordination, and from those I talked to there seems little doubt that he was told to leave or be fired. President Bush is fond of saying that he listens to his military commanders in the field, but he seems to listen only to those who tell him what he wants to hear. Gen. David Petraeus (Adm. Fallon denies calling him an "ass-kissing chickenshit" but that sounds like typical Navy talk to me) is one of those -- and even he has said that nobody in the Iraqi government or the U.S. government believes the make-believe Iraqi government has come close to the kind of reconciliation everybody claimed to believe was essential in the wake of the "surge."

I still don't think a war with Iran is inevitable -- it would be even stupider than the Iraq war -- but who knows with this administration.

There's word that Congress wants Adm. Fallon to testify, but the Pentagon won't allow it. I thought he would retire officially April 30, but I guess not. I hope when he does that he will speak out boldly and often. And maybe before.

Admiral Fallon out -- Iran next

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.