Fallon Out
I’m floored. I have supported Bush through thick and thin. I always agreed that war with Iraq was a sound strategic move that went awry when the U.S. Army, led by ass-hat-of-the-decade Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, bungled the reconstruction and COIN ops. But today, Adm. William Fallon, head of CENTCOM and the Administration’s main military voice for restraint with Iran, resigned [or more accurately got canned by the Bush Administration] amid a storm of controversy over an article in Esquire Magazine written by one of my main go-to guys on strategic analysis, Thomas P.M. Barnett.I can’t believe it. As others have stated, there doesn’t seem to be a single direct quote from Fallon in Barnett’s article that is critical of Bush or Administration policy. On the other hand, there is plenty from Barnett that portrays him as being the sole voice against war with Iran:
If, in the dying light of the Bush administration, we go to war with Iran, it'll all come down to one man. If we do not go to war with Iran, it'll come down to the same man. He is that rarest of creatures in the Bush universe: the good cop on Iran, and a man of strategic brilliance. His name is William Fallon, although all of his friends call him "Fox," which was his fighter-pilot call sign decades ago. Forty years into a military career that has seen this admiral rule over America's two most important combatant commands, Pacific Command and now United States Central Command, it's impossible to make this guy--as he likes to say--"nervous in the service." Past American governments have used saber rattling as a useful tactic to get some bad actor on the world stage to fall in line. This government hasn't mastered that kind of subtlety. When Dick Cheney has rattled his saber, it has generally meant that he intends to use it. And in spite of recent war spasms aimed at Iran from this sclerotic administration, Fallon is in no hurry to pick up any campaign medals for Iran. And therein lies the rub for the hard-liners led by Cheney. Army General David Petraeus, commanding America's forces in Iraq, may say, "You cannot win in Iraq solely in Iraq," but Fox Fallon is Petraeus's boss, and he is the commander of United States Central Command, and Fallon doesn't extend Petraeus's logic to mean war against Iran.
So while Admiral Fallon's boss, President George W. Bush, regularly trash-talks his way to World War III and his administration casually casts Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as this century's Hitler (a crown it has awarded once before, to deadly effect), it's left to Fallon--and apparently Fallon alone--to argue that, as he told Al Jazeera last fall: "This constant drumbeat of conflict . . . is not helpful and not useful. I expect that there will be no war, and that is what we ought to be working for. We ought to try to do our utmost to create different conditions."
I’ve read a lot of Barnett’s stuff. I’ve read both his books, seen several of his briefings, and visit his blog religiously. He’s a brilliant guy. But in all this brilliance he has acquired the sort of arrogance about which legends are made and I’m afraid it has finally bitten him in the ass and might just set off a war.
Is this fair to Dr. Barnett? Hell fucking no!!! The article is very sound on strategy, Dr. Barnett’s forte, he’s just doing his job as a journalist, and he has provided an important strategic argument that needs to be part of our overall debate concerning the region. However, he ventures down the dark road of politics in this article and because he’s so critical, and because the article is grounded so well strategically, he has made an argument that must be addressed, and in doing so has handed the administration an excuse to remove a significant barrier to war with Iran.
I never thought they’d actually do it until now.
Fallon’s replacement will almost certainly be Petraeus, an administration favorite who has called for strikes against Iran and is scheduled to rotate out this summer.
It’s all up to Gates and Rice to stop this madness. I pray to God they succeed.
Dubyah, I didn’t think you had it in you.
posted by Will at 5:36 PM
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