[Peace-discuss] Re: Resignation of Admiral Fallon and Iran

[Barbara kessel]

This same basic story as below was reported in "Democracy Now" on Wednesday,
MArch 13.

*Dissenting Views Made Fallon's Fall Inevitable
Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service, March 12, 2008*


http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41559<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=fBQJ7KrRNg%2FcJZo7MsIW4Uj%2FYOz%2FEEfW>

Admiral William Fallon's request to quit his position as head of the U.S.
Central Command (CENTCOM) and to retire from the military was apparently the
result of a George W. Bush administration decision to pressure him to
resign.

Announcing the resignation, Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates said he
believed it was "the right thing to do", thus indicating the administration
wanted it.

On Monday, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell, asked whether Gates still
had full confidence in Fallon, would only say that Fallon "still enjoys a
working - a good working relationship with the secretary of defence", and
then added, "Admiral Fallon serves at the pleasure of the president."

The resignation came a few days after the publication of an Esquire magazine
article profiling Fallon in which he was described as being "in hot water"
with the White House and justified public comments departing from the Bush
administration's policy toward Iran. The publicity that followed the article
accelerated the pressure on Fallon to resign.
…
The resignation brings to an end a year, during which time Fallon clashed
with the White House over policy toward Iran and with Gen. David Petraeus
and the White House over whether Iraq should continue to be given priority
over Afghanistan and Pakistan in U.S. policy.

Fallon's greatest concern appears to have been preventing war with Iran. He
was one a group of senior military officers, apparently including most of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who were alarmed in late 2006 and early 2007 by
indications that Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were contemplating a
possible attack on Iran.
…
Col. W. Patrick Lang, a former intelligence officer on the Middle East for
the Defence Intelligence Agency, told the Washington Post last week that
Fallon had said privately at the time of his confirmation that an attack on
Iran "isn't going to happen on my watch", When asked how he could avoid such
a conflict, Fallon reportedly responded, "I have options, you know." Lang
said he interpreted that comment as implying Fallon would step down rather
than follow orders to carry out such an attack.

As IPS reported last May, Fallon was also quoted as saying privately at that
time, "There are several of us trying to put the crazies back in the box".
That was an apparent reference to the opposition by the Joint Chiefs of
Staff to an aggressive war against Iran.

Even before assuming his new post at CENTCOM, Fallon expressed strong
opposition in mid-February to a proposal for sending a third U.S. aircraft
carrier to the Persian Gulf, to overlap with two other carriers, according
to knowledgeable sources. The addition of a third carrier was to part of a
broader strategy then being discussed at the Pentagon to intimidate Iran by
making a series of military moves suggesting preparations for a military
strike.

The plan for a third carrier task force in the Gulf was dropped after Fallon
made his views known.

Fallon reportedly made his opposition to a strike against Iran known to the
White House early on in his tenure, and his role as CENTCOM commander would
have made it very difficult for the Bush administration to carry out a
strike against Iran, because he controlled all ground, air and naval
military access to the region.
…
Fallon clearly relished his diplomatic role and did not hesitate to express
views on diplomacy that were at odds with those of the administration. Last
summer, as Dick Cheney was maneuvering within the administration to shift
U.S. policy toward an attack on bases in Iran allegedly connected to
anti-U.S. Shiite forces in Iraq, Fallon declared in an interview, "We have
to figure out a way to come to an arrangement" with Iran.

When Sunni Arab regimes in the Middle East became alarmed about the
possibility of a U.S. war with Iran, Fallon made statements on three
occasions in September and November ruling out a U.S. attack on Iran. Those
statements contradicted the Bush administration's policy of keeping the
military option "on the table" and soured relations with the White House.

Fallon also antagonised administration officials by pushing for a faster
exit from Iraq than the White House and Gen. Petraeus wanted. Fallon had a
highly-publicised personal and policy clash with Petraeus, for whom he
reportedly expressed a visceral dislike. Sources familiar with reports of
his meetings with Petraeus in Baghdad last March told IPS last spring that
he called him an "ass-kissing little chickens**t" in their first meeting.
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