Monday, June 02, 2008

Admiral Fallon explains.

Or doesn't:
Washington, D.C.(AHN) - America's former top military official for the Middle East has spoken for the first time since being replaced by the Pentagon. Admiral William J. "Fox" Fallon says in a New York Times interview that he had come under pressure after he went on record with his position for greater diplomatic engagement with Iran.

Fallon stepped down on March 11 as Commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) after a little over a year of service. He cited "the current embarrassing situation of public perception of differences between my views and administration policy and the distraction this causes from the mission" as the reason for his resignation. At the time, Esquire magazine had recently published an interview with Fallon that depicted him as criticizing President George Bush over wanting to invade Iran.

Over the weekend, Fallon again spoke to the Times about the "misperception" that he had come in conflict with the Bush administration over policy toward Iran. "There was a huge perception that I was publicly at odds with the president, which was not true. I had serious concerns that my subordinates - my soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines - had that perception. It put me in a difficult position. I felt very uncomfortable," he said.

But he also admitted that pressure had been building against him for months, and that there had been disagreements with Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the Multinational Force in Iraq and Fallon's replacement as CENTCOM chief. Fallon had pushed for troop withdrawals from Iraq that were more than those proposed by the Pentagon.
So you weren't preventing the White House from attacking Iran, but you were tossed out because you wanted to remove more soldiers from Iraq that they wanted to? ... It still doesn't make much sense, but thanks for trying.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would trust former SNL castmember Jimmy Fallon before this has-been "Admiral Fallon".

In no uncertain terms is our great President GW Bush willing and able to take the fight to Iran and its Al Qaedenese proxys in the middle east. We have the boots on the ground, the popular support at home, and the right leadership (though not in the Navy it seems) to accomplish the next logical step in the protection of America!

ellroon said...

No. Unfortunately you are wrong. On every point.

Do you remember Iran helped us right after 9/11 to fight al-Qaeda in Afghanistan? Isn't it strange that nobody brings that up?

Shiite Iran does not like the Sunni (and Saudi supported) al-Qaeda. There are no ties between Bin Laden and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There are ties between the Shiite groups in Iraq and the Shiite groups in Iran. And Saudi Arabia is supposed to be our friend. Strange, isn't it?

The boots on the ground are exhausted with innumerable tours of duty, the military is stretched to breaking point, the enlistment quotas are falling.

There is NO popular support in the USA for a third disastrous war for which there can be no resolution.

Bush is a moron. If you truly feel he is a great president, you haven't been paying attention or you don't care about the destruction of our Constitution.

Reading your post, I figure it's the latter.

Distributorcap said...

i cannot believe there are still people like your guest above

but ....

ellroon said...

And Dr. Ted, if you come back, I have a fantastic site that says only 7% of people who are following the situation in Iran want a military action.

Because I can tell you obviously prize logic and facts.

Anonymous said...

"Think Progress" is hardly a site I would consider a valid news source. I strongly recommend www.worldnetdaily.com if you are actually interested in real news, and real insight from people with an education.

So-called "Admiral" Fallon is just another cut-rate example of Bush Derangement Syndrome. Officers like him, and those misguided Left wing secular progressives in Congress and elsewhere, crudely attack our President any chance they get. I am surprised at how anti-American these responses to my comment would suggest that you all are.

One can debate the pros and cons of President Bush’s decision to go into Iraq (which, by the way, liberals like Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Joe Biden did not stop though they could have), but pacifism is not the answer, especially against Iran. In fact, sometimes war is indeed the answer, especially when trying to stop evil, anti-Semitic, possibly Iranian, terrorists who fly planes into buildings and behead and blow up innocent civilians, including children and journalists like Daniel Pearl, who was Jewish.

Left-leaning media like MSNBC and CNN down-play the efforts of the U.S. military to minimize collateral damage during warfare, but that is exactly what many of our brave soldiers say the military does indeed try to do. Historically, this is a Christian principle that the church has advocated since its beginning 2000 years ago.

It’s time to support President Bush and our troops now that they are deployed overseas in places like Iraq, trying to defend our liberties and establish a more compassionate society in the Middle East where, for too long, vicious Muslims and other Arab and Persian tyrants have held despotic control. Only when their culture of hatred and destruction is replaced by our American culture of free market capitalism, traditional Conservative values, and strong Christian compassion, will America and her steadfast allies have won the war against Terror.

ellroon said...

Ah, thanks, Dr. Ted, I appreciate your comments and your return. But oddly, your ip is in Canada.

I bow to your delightful parody.

Anonymous said...

Indeed, I am currently on a book tour through our neighbour to the north (Canada) in support of "Culture-wsie Family : Upholding Christian Values in a Mass Media World" (ISBN 0830743553). I have been signing books at Chapters-Indigo stores in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, and now Vancouver, where I am staying until June 11th when I return south to Seattle, WA.

I Seattle I will be signing copies of my books at the Barnes & Noble University Village location, 2675 NE University Village Street, Seattle Washington, from 5pm to 8pm on Wednesday June 11th. I invite you to come by if any of you are fans of my work, and would like to meet me in person. Dates and locations of my signing appearances in Portland OR, Vancouver WA, and Sacramento CA are TBA.

ellroon said...

You have to watch the misspellings when you copy and paste.