This could be bad
The commander in the Middle East, Admiral Fallon, head of Centcom, has resigned. He was one of the officers who stood between us and a disastrous war with Iran. It is no secret that there are those Neocons, who are still running around, who desire this war above all else before President Bush leaves office. Chief among them is the Vice President of the United States. The Iraq war has already significantly damaged the US, a war with Iran will cripple America. It will destroy the American way of life as we know it. And it will also cripple the economies of most countries in the world.
Admiral Fallon has resigned, and it is also no secret that several officers have said they would resign rather than carry out suicidal orders to attack Iran.
We are down to the wire.
Posted: March 11th, 2008 under Bushco, Cheney, Do The Right Thing, Iran, Oil.
Comments: 8
Comments
Comment from Josh Hammond
Time: March 11, 2008, 4:44 pm
So much for our Liar-in-Chief saying that he listens to the commanders in the field.
Comment from Sasha
Time: March 11, 2008, 8:39 pm
This makes me so sad. It also makes me worry about how soon Messrs. Bush and Cheney will attack Iran.
Comment from Sanctimonious Drivel
Time: March 12, 2008, 2:17 am
Fallon isn’t the first four-star officer to lose his job for verbal missteps. General Michael Duggan was fired as Air Force chief of staff by then-defense secretary Dick Cheney in 1990 for telling reporters traveling with him about Air Force attack options to help drive Iraq out of Kuwait following Saddam Hussein’s invasion of that country earlier that year. In 1995, Admiral Richard Macke, then the head of Pacific Command, was ousted after telling reporters over breakfast that sailors and Marines who beat and raped a 12-year-old Japanese girl should have hired a prostitute instead of paying for the car they rented and used in the crime.
Within hours of Fallon’s announcement that he would be leaving his post at the end of the month (to be replaced, at least temporarily, by his deputy, Army Lieutenant General Martin Dempsey), Democrats were criticizing what they perceived as his forced departure. “It is no secret that I do not see eye to eye with the Administration on most foreign policy issues, and the credibility which Admiral Fallon brought to the issues he was involved in will be sorely missed,” said Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin and member of the Foreign Relations Committee. “A military axiom is the need to speak truth to power,” added Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee’s intelligence panel. “And it still seems that smart people who do, end their careers.”
The betting inside the Pentagon is that despite Fallon’s departure, war with Iran is no more likely next month than it was last month.
The military, its hands full in Iraq and Afghanistan, could only engage in an air war against Iran’s nuclear sites. The ramifications of attacking a third Muslim nation since 9/11 are so extreme, military officers believe, that no president would launch such a war in his final months in office, which means to me Bush and Cheney are likely to do so, any day now.
Comment from Caj
Time: March 12, 2008, 6:16 am
” it is also no secret that several officers have said they would resign rather than carry out suicidal orders to attack Iran.” That may be true.
It should also be no secret that within the ranks of the military there is at least one Admiral/General who would be glad to further their career by assisting the bushcos in their march through the middle east.
Comment from Max
Time: March 12, 2008, 7:31 am
In today’s Juan Cole, he states that he thinks this is more about Iraq than Iran. He does not see any special reinforcement for an attack on Iran in the immediate future.
That may be true. But I doubt that many in the administration forgive him for his anti Iran attack stance. If we are lucky, there may be some other parties with influence that can help keep the crazies in the box, and keep the administration from attacking a third Moslem country.
Comment from Pat
Time: March 12, 2008, 8:41 am
A senior Iranian oil official reported that a new oil layer with a capacity of 2.2 billion barrels has been discovered in the Azadegan oilfield.
“The new layer was discovered when the seventh exploration well was drilled in the Azadegan Oilfield.” Mohamed Mohaddes, the National Iranian Oil Company’s director for oil exploration, told FNA (Fars News Agency) on Sunday.
Comment from timr
Time: March 12, 2008, 4:04 pm
Fallon retired, not resigned. There are several general officers here in SA(ret) who discuss this quite a bit. The overall opinion is that most, repeat most, not all officers would refuse and retire rather than attack Iran. But of course there are more than a few “perfumed princes”- ie suck ups, brown nosers, ass kissers, the term was brought into widespread use thru the founder of soldiers for the truth- who in fact are not real warriors, but are however always willing to do what they are told by their political bosses, thinking only about themselves rather than the country as a whole. So, one of them might be put in charge-lots of luck on getting that one thru the senate-and that person might well order an attack on Iran. It would then be up to the subordinate commanders whether or not to follow the order. There is much discussion by one star general officers, col. and other lower ranking officers. Many feel that an attack on Iran could be very destructive to our military in Iraq. Example, all of the ADA(air defense) soldiers have pretty much been retrained into infantry, leaving their systems, IHAWK and Patriot pretty much to gather dust. Is there anybody watching? Not a lot. Remember 12-06/07-1941 for the strength of our defenses from the air. The next few months, provided we survive as a country, should be quite interesting. We have already fallen down the slippery slope of torture being made official by a prez order, and the congress not able to over ride the veto. Civilization always hangs by a thread, the banality of evil and barbarism lies just under the surface. Are we civilized? Every one thought that the germans were a civilized people until after WWII when all the monsters were brought to light. Read up on what exactly happened in germany in the 1930’s, then you can see just how easy it is to become that which you swore you would never be.
Comment from caj
Time: March 12, 2008, 7:31 pm
timr
Thank you for your eloquence.
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