Admiral Rejects Glowing Tribute As Poison

[This is one of the worst posts I've ever written but at least it's UPDATED BELOW]

Esquire magazine has just published a remarkable piece about Admiral William Fallon, who as CENTCOM commander is the highest ranking US military man in the Middle East.

The article, by Thomas Barnett, describes Fallon in glowing terms and depicts him as standing between the maddest of madmen and their most heinous plan -- an attack on innocent civilians that would kill millions and plunge the world into an even larger, more complex war.

Fallon, who clearly cooperated with Barnett, now rejects the piece, calling it "poison pen stuff", "really disrespectful and ugly".

Why? Because of a few tricky little details which I deliberately omitted from the opening paragraph.

The madmen in question are in the White House, and the Pentagon, and the Knesset, and Wall Street, and many other allegedly respectable places ... and their heinous plan is to wage nuclear war against Iran.

Thomas Barnett in Esquire:

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.

Thomas Ricks in the Washington Post:

The top U.S. commander in the Middle East is the subject of a glowing magazine article describing him as the only person who might stop the Bush administration from going to war against Iran.

Esquire magazine's [...] profile of Adm. William "Fox" Fallon portrays the chief of the U.S. Central Command as "brazenly challenging" President Bush on Iran, pushing back "against what he saw as an ill-advised action."

Written by Thomas P.M. Barnett, a former professor at the Naval War College, the article in the magazine's April issue predicts that if Fallon leaves his position at Central Command, "it may well mean that the president and vice president intend to take military action against Iran before the end of this year and don't want a commander standing in their way."

The article is written in an admiring fashion, praising Fallon as "a man of strategic brilliance" whose understanding of the tumultuous situation in Pakistan "is far more complex than anyone else's."

Asked about the article yesterday, Fallon called it "poison pen stuff" that is "really disrespectful and ugly." He did not cite specific objections.

It looks to me as if the good admiral was willing to stand between the madmen and their goal as long as he could do it quietly; but now that Barnett has blown his cover, Fallon's backpedaling like mad to try to avoid decapitation.

I'd probably do the same.

~~~

There's more at both links.

Esquire: The Man Between War and Peace

Washington Post: Commander Rejects Article of Praise

~~~

[UPDATE!] Chris Floyd has posted a masterful deconstruction of everything I've said here; I fell into a dumb trap whereas Chris did not.

Kudos to Chris and darts to me; go read Chris right away!

Crushing the Ants: The Admiral and the Empire

There has been quite a buzzing in "progressive" circles over the new Esquire article about Admiral William Mullen, head of U.S. Central Command, the military satrapy that covers the entire "arc of crisis" at the heart of the "War on Terror," from east Africa, across the Middle East, and on to the borders of China. Much has been made of Mullen's alleged apostasy from the Bush Regime's bellicosity toward Tehran; indeed, the article paints Mullen as the sole bulwark against an American attack on Iran – and hints ominously that the good admiral may be forced out by George W. Bush this summer, clearing the way for one last murderous hurrah by the lame duck president. The general reaction to the article seems to be: God preserve this honorable man, and keep him as our shield and defender against the wicked tyrant.

But this is most curious. For behind the melodramatic framing and gushing hero-worship of the article – written by Thomas Barnett (of whom more later) – we find nothing but a few mild disagreements between Fallon and the White House over certain questions of tactics, timing and presentation in regard to American domination of a vast range of nations and peoples.

Fallon himself has long denied the story which had him declaring, upon taking over Central Command, that a war on Iran "isn't going to happen on my watch." And in fact, the article itself depicts Fallon's true attitude toward the idea of an attack on Iran right up front, in his own words. After noting Fallon's concerns about focusing too much on Iran to the exclusion of the other "pots boiling over" in the region, Barnett nevertheless keeps pressing the point the point and asks: "And if it comes to war?" Fallon replies with stark, brutal clarity:

"Get serious," the admiral says. "These guys are ants. When the time comes, you crush them."

Ha ha! Of course you do!!

Chris Floyd: Crushing the Ants: The Admiral and the Empire

Of All The Admirals With Expertise In Land Warfare, We Get You?

[Updated below]

The so-called president has been meddling in military affairs again, this time putting General John Abizaid to pasture and installing Admiral William Fallon as head of US Central Command (CENTCOM).

As the BBC notes, this will put an admiral in charge of two land wars.

How long do you figure it's been since the last time the so-called president did something this stupid? Fifteen minutes? Twenty?

Not that Admiral Fallon's resume is a light one. Far from it. Excerpts from his biography at Wikipedia:

Adm. Fallon began his Naval Aviation service flying in the RA-5C Vigilante with a combat deployment to Vietnam, transitioning to the A-6 Intruder in 1974. He served in flying assignments with Attack Squadrons and Carrier Air Wings for twenty-four years, deploying to the Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans embarked in USS Saratoga, USS Ranger, USS Nimitz, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and USS Theodore Roosevelt. He has logged more than 1,300 carrier arrested landings and 4,800 flight hours in tactical jet aircraft.

Adm. Fallon commanded Attack Squadron Sixty Five embarked in USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, Medium Attack Wing One at NAS Oceana, Va., and Carrier Air Wing Eight in USS Theodore Roosevelt during a combat deployment to the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Assigned as Commander, Carrier Group Eight in 1995, he deployed to the Mediterranean as Commander, Theodore Roosevelt Battle Group and commanded Battle Force Sixth Fleet (CTF 60) during NATO’s combat Operation Deliberate Force in Bosnia. Adm. Fallon served as Commander, Second Fleet and Commander, Striking Fleet Atlantic from November 1997 to September 2000.

Shore duties included assignment as Aide and Flag Lieutenant to the Commander, Fleet Air Jacksonville, and to the staffs of Commander, Reconnaissance Attack Wing One; Commander, Operational Test Force, and Commander, Naval Air Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. He has served as Deputy Director for Operations, Joint Task Force, Southwest Asia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and as Deputy Director, Aviation Plans and Requirements on the Staff of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington, D.C. His first flag officer assignment was with NATO as Assistant Chief of Staff, Plans and Policy for Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic. He was then assigned as Deputy and Chief of Staff, U.S. Atlantic Fleet followed by assignment as Deputy Commander in Chief and Chief of Staff, U.S. Atlantic Command. Adm. Fallon served as the 31st Vice Chief of Naval Operations from October 2000 to August 2003. He was the Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command and U.S. Atlantic Fleet from October 2003 to February 2005.

It would have been reassuring to see something -- anything -- about urban or desert warfare, or even harts and mines. But instead we'll have to rely on his international relations. He's a master:

Adm. Fallon is a graduate of the Naval War College, Newport, R.I., the National War College in Washington, D.C., and has a Master of Arts Degree in International Studies from Old Dominion University.

UPDATE: Jeff Huber has written a much more penetrating analysis, which you can read in its entirety at Larisa Alexandrovna's At-Largely, but here's the crux of the matter:

It seems highly unusual for a navy admiral to take charge of CENTCOM until you consider two interrelated things. First is that Bush needs a senior four-star in the CENTCOM job who hasn't gone on record as opposing additional troops in Iraq. Second is that Fallon's CENTCOM area of responsibility will include Iran.

A conflict with Iran would be a naval and air operation. Fallon is a naval flight officer. He flew combat missions in Vietnam, commanded an A-6 Intruder squadron, a carrier air wing and an aircraft carrier. As a three-star, he commanded Second Fleet and Strike Force Atlantic. He presently heads U.S. Pacific Command. His resume also includes duty in numerous joint and Navy staff billets, including Deputy Director for Operations with Joint Task Force Southwest Asia in Riyahd, Saudi Arabia.

If anybody knows how to run a maritime and air operation against Iran, it's "Fox" Fallon.

... and so on ...

What's even more frightening is that the escalation strategy--that includes more troops in Iraq, an expansion of the military and use of armed force against Iran--comes from the core neoconservative cabal headed by Bill Kristol and supported by Dick Cheney that got us into our Middle East miasma in the first place.

And Admiral William "Fox" Fallon, about to become the top military commander in the Middle East, has been rubbing shoulders and socks with the neocons for a good long time.