Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Posted on 03/13/2008 8:40:32 AM PDT by LSUfan
Here's a radical thought: The abrupt resignation yesterday of the Combatant Commander of U.S. Central Command, Admiral William J. "Fox" Fallon, is not the end of a career but a move calculated to catapult the former naval aviator into the Vice Presidential sweepstakes. After all, a military man who has proven himself utterly unserious about the Iranian threat would be perfect running mate for either Senators Obama or Clinton.
The superficial appeal of such a cynical gambit may prove short-lived, however. The more one knows about Admiral Fallon's conduct as a senior officer in sensitive positions around the world, the more unappealing his candidacy should be. Would any President want on his (or her) team an individual who had engaged in serial acts of insubordination and sabotage of a previous Commander-in-Chief? Consider just a few of the more public examples of such behavior:
According to a recent, fatuous profile in Esquire Magazine, no sooner had Adm. Fallon assumed his previous post as Commander of Pacific Command in 2005, than he began an aggressive campaign to establish closer military-to-military ties with China's People's Liberation Army. The history of such efforts was replete with examples of the Chinese using these contacts as opportunities to collect intelligence against our forces, while systematically withholding information about their military's capabilities, prompting many in the Pentagon and Congress to oppose the resumption of these exchanges.
Fallon's appeasement of Communist China continued in 2006 when, as the Washington Times' national security correspondent, Bill Gertz, reported, he "restricted U.S. intelligence-gathering activities against China, fearing that disclosure of the activities would upset relations with Beijing." Never mind that the PRC is engaged in even more comprehensive and aggressive espionage against this country than that of the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.
The Admiral's assignment to Centcom commander came as a shock to those who had observed what some called his "toxic leadership" in the Pacific Command. Having secured this new posting, he inflicted a similar dysfunctionality on the headquarters for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He actively worked against the surge in Iraq and, at every turn, sought to impede Gen. David Patreaus' implementation of a successful counter-insurgency strategy there. He has acknowledged that he did not forcefully deliver a message from Washington aimed at discouraging Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf from imposing martial law on his country.
Fallon also takes pride in having "banished the term ‘long war' from Centcom's vocabulary." The Esquire puff-piece details how "[Fallon] believes real victory in this struggle will be defined in economic terms first, and so the emphasis on war struck him as ‘too narrow.' But the term also signaled a long haul that Fallon simply finds unacceptable. He wants troop levels in Iraq down now, and he wants the Afghan National Army running the show throughout most of Afghanistan by the end of the year."
Then, there is the matter of Iran. Fallon was most clearly in breach of the principle of civilian command of the military as he sought to contradict presidential assessments of the threat posed by the mullaocracy there and to promote his own diplomatic initiatives with Tehran. For example, he told Esquire that Iran could eventually participate in a summit of Persian Gulf chiefs of defense, similar to one he convened earlier this year in Tampa. He also asserted that engagement with Iran is crucial to stop the flow of munitions into Iraq, when every indication is that the Iranians perceive such diplomatic openings as signs of American weakness and lack of resolve, to be exploited wherever possible.
Not least, Fallon opined on al-Jazeera last Fall that, "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." Asia Times carried a report last year that he would resign if ordered to go to war – a sentiment he never denied.
The question is: Will rank insubordination on a scale arguably not seen in a military commander since MacArthur faded away nearly six decades ago be rewarded by still higher office? Will Democratic politicians so anxious to demean George Bush's presidency and seek partisan advantage by pandering to the American people's penchant for ignoring, rather than confronting, emerging threats resist the temptation to embrace Fox Fallon? Or will they seek to burnish their own, woefully inadequate national security credentials by enlisting this arrogant, short-sighted and insubordinate officer in a new, and probably even-more-problematic, political career?
I’ve got to go with Vice President Palin.
A self hating military guy. Sounds like just the man for the Retreat and Surrender crowd around Obama and Hillary.
Reminds me of William Crowe, Wesley Clark and others.
Benedict Arnold, at least, was a good and competent military leader before he changed sides.
Maybe he lasted this long, because he is good at his job, and actually isn’t insubordinate, but speaks his mind.
If his job is letting the Chinese Communists collect intelligence on our military and getting nothing of value in return, maybe you are right.
“Fallon opined on al-Jazeera last Fall”
‘nuff said...
Good grief, a military man talking to Esquire Magazine?
What’s next?
Cosmo?
Do you really think he would have gotten 4 stars, and the jobs he had, if were insubordinate and a sabateur?
Heard of Wesley Clark and Benedict Arnold?
He got 3 of his stars before Bush came along...he was, is and always will be one of the worst flag rank officers in the history of the modern military. I know someone who visited his staff in Tampa and was shocked at the lack of respect his own staff had for the man.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
I believe the question is: Who gave this guy his star? Was he in the same class as Janis Karpinsky?
2 out of how many 4 stars since Arnold? How would this administration put him where he was, if he was an insubordinate sabateur? Do you think less than a year in Iraq changed him?
Actually it's a stupid thought. Fallon brings nothing to the Democratic ticket, even assuming he was interested in the position. I doubt that we'll hear from the admiral again unless some network grabs him as a talking-head on military matters.
And he got his 4th, and the position, after this admin got in office. Why is it, that a lot of these military leaders are heros, until they say something some people don’t want to hear, then they’re traitors?
U.S.-IRAQ: Fallon Derided Petraeus, Opposed the Surge
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Sep 12 (IPS) - In sharp contrast to the lionisation of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the U.S. Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.
Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and added, "I hate people like that", the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior...
McCain should pick Petraeus then.
The good admiral is a lefty, so he would fit right in with McCain.
Didn't she just announce that she was pregnant?
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
McCain is going to whoop Iran’s rear...
I wondered if “levity” might be the case, and yes, she’s apparently due in May.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39235
Read this and then make your case defending Admiral Falloonatic.
Or McCain/Palin ‘08, Palin/Jindal ‘12.
I see nothing wrong with an independent, speak-your-mind commander. Why do you think he was posted to that job last year, if he wasn’t considered the man for the job?
Bush is horrible at selecting people for jobs. Look at “Brownie” as the head of FEMA. He also kept George Tenet on as CIA director...
Don’t you think the SecNav, SecDef, SecState or a number of others, had something to do with it?
They can describe his departure however they want, but Fallon was fired by the Bush Administration. Why would any Republican want to hire him? If anything, expect him to show up as an advisor to OBama.
Association with McStain will tarnish her. Best for her to steer clear, so that two unadulterated, real conservatives can be the ticket in 2012.
Not an unreasonable idea.
However, given McCain’s age and history, were he to be elected president, whoever’s his VP could very well be running for reelection as an incumbent in 2012.
It could be political ambitions of his own.
It really couldn't be speaking his mind honestly, or he would be willing to admit that his former subordinate, General Patreus, has done a splendid job even if he didn't agree with the strategy.
Benedict Arnold's decision to betray West Point to the British does not mean he wasn't qualified to be one of Washington's best generals up until that time.
Perhaps, he doesn’t believe he has gone off-track.
I wonder if he’d got enough time-in-grade to retire as a 4-star. Seems to me he doesn’t. That interview with “Esquire” is may have hit him in the wallet — assuming he has to retire as a RADM or VADM.
They never do. And in Benedict Arnold’s mind, he wasn’t turning against his country, he was just taking a promotion that George Washington and other ingrates had denied him.
If true, this just tells me the man stands by his convictions, and it obviously wasn’t because he is an insubordinate sabateur as some here think.
It seems that if you have to go back 200 yrs or so, the situations may not be similar.
Fallon is too loyal to the President to even consider it. Don’t believe everything you read in the papers.
If you want a more recent example, in Bill Clinton’s mind he wasn’t trying to beat an impeachment rap, he was saving the constitution.
That comment never happened. The story was spread by Army brass who hated the idea that Petraeus had to report to a Navy guy. Army has been trying to get rid of him and get their own guy in there.
I don’t think this is anywhere near the same thing.
That comment never happened. The story was spread by Army brass who hated the idea that Petraeus had to report to a Navy guy. Army has been trying to get rid of him and get their own guy in there.
Ok. Any proof to back up your claim. This guy sounds like another Colin Powell to me. I'm curious as to why you are defending him.
I don’t know where Adm Fallon went wrong. I suspect that certain well-connected journalists will have the explanation shortly.
You walk a fine line as a member of the Joint Chiefs or a Regional Commander.
That’s true, he’s not just like a regular commander taking orders, as many seem to think.
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