Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

-Land of the Free

Trump names nominees to take over commands in Middle East and Africa

2025-06-06

[AnNahar] President Donald Trump
...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!...
is nominating Vice Adm. Brad Cooper to take over as the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, the Pentagon said Wednesday. If he is confirmed, it would mark just the second time that a Navy admiral has held the job.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement that Trump also is nominating Air Force Lt. Gen. Dagvin Anderson to head U.S. Africa Command. Anderson would be the first Air Force general to lead the command, which was created in 2007.

Cooper is currently deputy commander of U.S. Central Command and has extensive experience serving and leading troops in the Middle East. The current head of the command, Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, is slated to retire after more than three years in the post.

It is a crucial role as the region has been shaken by conflict, with the Trump administration pushing to broker a ceasefire deal after 20 months of war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
and pressing for an agreement with Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
in negotiations over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program.

A 1989 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Cooper commanded naval forces in the Middle East for close to three years as the head of the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain. He left in February 2024 to take over as deputy at Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and is based in Tampa.

Army and Marine generals have largely held the Middle East job since it was created in 1983. And two of the recent leaders — former Army Gen. Lloyd Austin and former Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, went on to serve as defense secretary. Central Command covers 21 countries across central and south Asia and northeast Africa and has overseen the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Syria and Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
The only Navy officer to ever lead Central Command was Adm. William Fallon, who resigned after a year and retired. At the time, Fallon said he was stepping down due to press reports that suggested he was opposed to then-President George W. Bush's Iran policies. He said the reports were wrong but the perception had become a distraction.

Cooper is a surface warfare officer and served on guided-missile cruisers, destroyers, aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships. He commanded a destroyer and a cruiser.

During his time leading the 5th Fleet, Cooper set up the Navy's first unmanned and artificial intelligence task force, and he led naval operations against the Iran-backed Iran's Houthi sock puppets

...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
rebels in Yemen. He also oversaw the Navy's role in Operation Prosperity Guardian, the U.S.-led coalition created in late 2023 to counter Houthi attacks on fat merchantmen in the Red Sea.

He previously served as commander of Naval Surface Force Atlantic and commander of U.S. Naval Forces Korea. Cooper is the son of a career Army officer and got his master's degree in strategic intelligence from the National Intelligence University.

Anderson, nominated to lead operations in Africa, is a pilot who has flown the KC-135 tanker, the C-130 transport aircraft and the U-28A surveillance aircraft used largely by special operations forces. He has flown more than 3,400 flight hours, including 738 in combat.

He is currently serving as the director of joint force development on the Joint Staff.

According to the Air Force, he commanded a special operations squadron, an expeditionary squadron, an operations group and a special operations wing. He also led the task force that coordinated the repositioning of U.S. forces from Somalia and headed Special Operations Command, Africa, from 2019 to 2021.

Africa Command is the newest of the Pentagon's geographic commands and covers the bulk of the African continent. Much of the U.S. military's efforts there have focused on combatting holy warrior groups and training local forces.

Anderson would be the seventh general to head Africa Command. To date, four of the previous leaders were Army generals and two were Marines.

Anderson is from Ypsilanti, Michigan, and graduated from the ROTC program at Washington University in St. Louis.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Petraeus takes over at U.S. Central Command

2008-10-31

By Andrew Gray

TAMPA, Florida (Rooters) - U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus took over the command running the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Friday and said it was vital to combine military and civilian power and work with allies.

Petraeus, hailed as an outstanding U.S. military leader for helping to pull Iraq back from the brink of all-out civil war, took charge of U.S. Central Command in a ceremony at the headquarters in Tampa, Florida.

Central Command, known as Centcom, oversees U.S. military operations and strategy in a volatile swathe of the world that covers 20 countries and stretches from Egypt across the Middle East and into south and central Asia.

Petraeus, 55, a fiercely competitive, media-friendly soldier who holds a doctorate in international relations from Princeton University, leaves on Saturday to visit the region.

His most pressing problems include rising insurgent violence in Afghanistan and safe havens for Taliban and al Qaeda militants across in border in Pakistan.

"From trans-national extremist organizations and industrial-strength insurgencies to weapons proliferation, a rise in piracy and persistent ethno-sectarian conflict, the Centcom area contains innumerable challenges," Petraeus said.

"Addressing these challenges requires comprehensive approaches that employ the whole of our government's capabilities in close coordination with host country and coalition governments and security forces," he said.

His remarks reflected Petraeus' belief that violence and instability cannot be solved by force alone and that economic development and political measures are also needed to address underlying causes.

Petraeus, 55, pursued that approach as the top commander in Iraq from February 2007 until last month and violence dropped to its lowest level in more than four years.

PRE-EMINENT SOLDIER

While other major factors also contributed to the security gains in Iraq and analysts argue about how durable they are, Petraeus' leadership has earned him widespread praise in the United States and beyond.

"He is the pre-eminent soldier-scholar-statesman of his generation and precisely the man we need at this command at this time," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at the ceremony, conducted outdoors in bright sunshine.

"Under his leadership, our troops have dealt our enemies in Iraq a tremendous blow. Now he will take aim at our adversaries in Afghanistan."

One of Petraeus' main challenges will be to maintain his cautious approach to troop cuts in Iraq while meeting commanders' requests for more forces in Afghanistan, where insurgent violence has worsened this year.

That task may be more difficult if Democrat Barack Obama defeats Republican John McCain in next week's U.S. presidential election. Although he has reserved room for maneuver, Obama has suggested removing combat troops from Iraq in 16 months.

Petraeus took over at Central Command from Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, in temporary charge since Navy Adm. William Fallon quit in March after a magazine article said he was pushing President George W. Bush to avoid war with Iran.

Link

Iraq

Our generals almost cost us Iraq

2008-09-24

By Mackubin Thomas Owens

The dominant media storyline about the Iraq war holds that the decisions about how to conduct it pitted ignorant civilians -- especially the president and secretary of defense -- against the uniformed military, whose wise and sober advice was cavalierly ignored. The Bush administration's cardinal sin was interference in predominantly military affairs, starting with overruling the military on the size of the force that invaded Iraq in March 2003. But it's not just the media that peddles this story. As Bob Woodward illustrates in his new book, "The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008," it also resonates among many senior uniformed military officers.

The plausibility of the narrative rests on two questionable principles. The first is that soldiers have the right to a voice in making policy regarding the use of the military instrument -- that indeed they have the right to insist that their views be adopted. The second is that the judgment of soldiers is inherently superior to that of civilians when it comes to military affairs. Both of these principles are at odds with the American practice of civil-military relations, and with the historical record.

In our republic the uniformed military advises the civilian authorities, but has no right to insist that its views be adopted. Of course, uniformed officers have an obligation to stand up to civilian leaders if they think a policy is flawed. They must convey their concerns to civilian policy-makers forcefully and truthfully. But once a policy decision is made, soldiers are obligated to carry it out to the best of their ability, whether their advice is heeded or not. Moreover, even when it comes to strictly military affairs, soldiers are not necessarily more prescient than civilian policy makers. This is confirmed by the historical record.

Historians have long recognized that Abraham Lincoln's judgment concerning the conduct of the Civil War was vastly superior to that of Gen. George McClellan. They have recognized that Gen. George C. Marshall, the greatest soldier-statesman since George Washington, was wrong to oppose arms shipments to Great Britain in 1940, and wrong to argue for a cross-channel invasion during the early years of World War II, before the U.S. was ready. Historians have pointed out that the U.S. operational approach that contributed to our defeat in Vietnam was the creature of the uniformed military. And they have observed that the original -- unimaginative -- military plan for Operation Desert Storm in the Gulf War was rejected by the civilian leadership, which ordered a return to the drawing board. The revised plan was far more imaginative, and effective.

So it was with Iraq. The fact is that the approach favored by the uniformed leadership was failing. As the insurgency metastasized in 2005, the military had three viable alternatives: continue offensive operations along the lines of those in Anbar province after Fallujah; adopt a counterinsurgency approach; or emphasize the training of Iraqi troops in order to transition to Iraqi control of military operations. Gen. John Abizaid, commander of the U.S. Central Command, and Gen. George W. Casey, commander of the Multi-National Force in Iraq -- supported by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers -- chose the third option.

Transitioning to Iraqi control was a logical option for the long run. But it did little to solve the problem of the insurgency, which was generating sectarian violence. Based on the belief by many senior commanders, especially Gen. Abizaid, that U.S. troops were an "antibody" to Iraqi culture, the Americans consolidated their forces on large "forward operating bases," maintaining a presence only by means of motorized patrols that were particularly vulnerable to attacks by improvised explosive devices. They also conceded large swaths of territory and population alike to the insurgents. Violence spiked.

In late 2006, President Bush, like President Lincoln in 1862, adopted a new approach to the war. He replaced the uniformed and civilian leaders who were adherents of the failed operational approach with others who shared his commitment to victory rather than "playing for a tie." In Gen. David Petraeus, Mr. Bush found his Ulysses Grant, to execute an operational approach based on sound counterinsurgency doctrine. This new approach has brought the U.S. to the brink of victory.

Although the conventional narrative about the Iraq war is wrong, its persistence has contributed to the most serious crisis in civil-military relations since the Civil War. According to Mr. Woodward's account, the uniformed military not only opposed the surge, insisting that their advice be followed; it then subsequently worked to undermine the president once he decided on another strategy.

In one respect, the actions taken by military opponents of the surge, e.g. "foot-dragging," "slow-rolling" and selective leaking are, unfortunately, all-too-characteristic of U.S. civil-military relations during the last decade and a half. But the picture Mr. Woodward draws is far more troubling. Even after the policy had been laid down, the bulk of the senior U.S. military leadership -- the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, the rest of the Joint Chiefs, and Gen. Abizaid's successor, Adm. William Fallon, actively worked against the implementation of the president's policy.

If Mr. Woodward's account is true, it means that not since Gen. McClellan attempted to sabotage Lincoln's war policy in 1862 has the leadership of the U.S. military so blatantly attempted to undermine a president in the pursuit of his constitutional authority. It should be obvious that such active opposition to a president's policy poses a threat to the health of the civil-military balance in a republic.

Mr. Owens is a professor at the Naval War College and editor of Orbis, the journal of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Petraeus takes command of Middle East

2008-07-11

The US Senate has confirmed Gen. David Petraeus as commander of the military headquarters responsible for US operations across the Middle East. The Senate confirmed Petraeus by a vote of 95-2 on Thursday.

Harkin (Dhimmi-IA) and Byrd (D-KKK) voted no.

Does Byrd even know what planet he's on?

The Harry F. Byrd Memorial Planet?

I doubt he's oriented to person, place and time ...

It also confirmed 96-1 the nomination of Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno as top commander in Iraq, replacing Petraeus.

Harkin again.

How did Odierno get Byrd's vote? Did he promise to name a tank after him?

Yes, but they have to keep it in West Virginia ...

Odierno, who previously served as Petraeus' deputy in the war, will be promoted to full general.

As head of Central Command, Petraeus will oversee military operations in a region that includes Iran, Pakistan and 25 other countries, as well as strategically and economically significant international waters, including the Persian Gulf. Petraeus' nomination followed the resignation of Adm. William Fallon after a reported break with the Bush administration over Iran policy.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Obama says He'll vote for Petraeus for new military job

2008-04-28

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who has called for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq, said on Sunday he will vote to confirm the top commander there for a new job as head of the military's Central Command. "Yes," Obama told "Fox News Sunday" when asked if, as a senator from Illinois, he would approve Petraeus. "I think Petraeus has done a good tactical job in Iraq."

President George W. Bush has nominated Gen. David Petraeus, who led the buildup of troops in Iraq, to be in charge of operations across the Middle East and Central Asia. If confirmed by the Senate, Petraeus will still be in that job when the next president replaces Bush at the White House in January 2009. Obama hopes that person is him.

Obama has said he would start pulling out more troops as soon as he became president. "My hope is that Petraeus would reflect that wider view of our strategic interest," he said on "Fox News Sunday.

"I will listen to General Petraeus given the experience that he has accumulated over the last several years," Obama said. "It would be stupid of me to ignore what he has to say.

"It would be my job as commander in chief to set the mission, to make the strategic decisions in light of the problems that we're having in Afghanistan, in light of the problems that we are having in Pakistan, the fact that al Qaeda is strengthening," Obama said.

Obama also said he was a "big respecter" of Petraeus' predecessor Adm. William Fallon, who resigned after a magazine article depicted him as openly criticizing Bush administration policy over Iran. "It was unfortunate that the administration wasn't listening more to the observations of Fallon, that we have to think about more than just Iraq, that we've got issues with Iran and Pakistan and Afghanistan, and our singular focus on Iraq I think has distracted us," Obama said.

Link

India-Pakistan

With a Quiet Blessing, U.S. Attacks on Al Qaeda Spike

2008-03-23

The United States has stepped up its use of pilotless planes to strike at Qaeda targets along Pakistan's rugged border area, a measure that in the past drew protests from President Pervez Musharraf but now has his government's tacit approval. Since January, missiles reportedly fired from CIA operated Predator drones have hit at least three suspected hideouts of Islamic militants, including a strike last Sunday on a house in a South Waziristan village called Toog.

The surge began after visits to Pakistan at the beginning of the year by senior U.S. officials, including intelligence czar Mike McConnell, CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden and Adm. William Fallon, who recently resigned as commander of the U.S. forces in the region. Some news reports said at the time that Musharraf had "rebuffed" U.S. proposals to step up combat operations inside Pakistan. But U.S. officials and Pakistani sources, who asked for anonymity discussing sensitive information, said the recent wave of Predator attacks are at least partly the result of understandings the high-level visitors reached with Musharraf and other top Pakistanis, giving the United States virtually unrestricted authority to hit targets in the border areas.

One former official said that the United States has been relying on its own intel to uncover terror targets because Pakistani intelligence agencies are weak on espionage in the tribal areas. By contrast, U.S. forces have a heavy presence on the Afghan side of the border. Bruce Riedel, a retired CIA expert on the region, said that a new wave of terrorism inside Pakistanthere were 62 suicide attacks last year, after just six in 2006has forced Musharraf and the new military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, to acknowledge that the same extremists threatening Americans now also pose a growing threat to Pakistan's internal security. Another reason for the rise in Predator strikes, according to a current U.S. official: Washington fears that any newly formed civilian government in Pakistan will be more hostile to U.S. operations there than Musharraf's current regime. Time to act, in other words, may be running out.

Link

Iraq

U.S. general accuses Iran of continuing to support Iraqi insurgents

2008-03-05

(Xinhua) — A U.S. senior military officer accused Iran on Tuesday of continuing to support Iraqi insurgents by providing training and weapons. "We have no doubt they are still supporting insurgents," said the former senior military commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, at a press conference in Washington. However, Odierno did not view Iran's support to insurgents as along-term threat to Iraqi stability, but he acknowledged the need to "constantly watch it."

Meanwhile, the general noted a positive change of Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army, which was considered the biggest challenge to U.S. efforts to stabilize the country. "I think he's trying to move them away from a militia-based organization to one that is more - as it started out to be - helping the poor Shiite community have a role and a vote in what goes on in the government of Iraq," he said.

Echoing Odierno's concern on Iran, Adm. William Fallon, the chief of the Central Command governing the troops in the Middle East, told a Tuesday hearing at the Senate that Iran was fanning the flames of global terrorism. He claimed that although the Irani government denied charges of harmful meddling in Iraq, "the facts prove otherwise."

However, Fallon also described Irani President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's two-day trip to Iraq this week as a "mixed bag" that could offer an opportunity for the Iraqi government to push Iran directly to stop supporting insurgents and start cooperating with coalition forces. Ahmadinejad's visit to Iraq was the first by an Iranian leader since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Link

Africa Horn

U.S. steps up anti-piracy ops

2008-01-12

From Geostrategy-Direct, subscription.
The commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said last week that the U.S. Navy has been ordered to step up anti-piracy operations against ship-borne criminals near East Africa.

Adm. William Fallon said pirates in the region have become bolder and are attacking larger ships.

I have given some guidance to our naval commanders, and we've been able to get some approvals to do some things that are a little more aggressive than we had in the past. We were pretty much in a passive mode," Fallon told Voice of America. We're going to continue to operate in this area and to do everything we can to discourage this kind of activity.
How about following pirate vessels back to port with a UAV and then make a crater of the dock area for a radius of 100 meters.
Navy ships recently retook a pirated ships and blocked pirates from getting supplies from shore. Small boats used by pirates also have been destroyed off the coast of Somalia.

Pirates pose a threat to stability in the region. This kind of behavior, lawless behavior, if it's allowed to continue, just fosters an atmosphere of total disregard for accepted norms of behavior. And one thing leads to another, and if you allow this kind of behavior, whether it's ashore or afloat, typically there's a downward spiral. And that's what I think we've seen in this area. So, we're trying to clean up the neighborhood.
Master of the Obvious, understatement of the week.....
An estimate 200 pirates are believed to operate in East African waters and until recently operates a number of criminal enterprises that were engaged in stealing ship cargo and kidnapping crews and vessels and seeking ransom.

Link

Home Front: WoT

U.S. Troops to be sent to Pakistan early next year

2007-12-27

This story was posted to the Washington Post on the 26th. It bears watching to see if the troop deployment will still going forward since Bhutto's assasination.
Beginning early next year, U.S. Special Forces are expected to vastly expand their presence in Pakistan, as part of an effort to train and support indigenous counter-insurgency forces and clandestine counterterrorism units, according to defense officials involved with the planning.

These Pakistan-centric operations will mark a shift for the U.S. military and for U.S. Pakistan relations. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the U.S. used Pakistani bases to stage movements into Afghanistan. Yet once the U.S. deposed the Taliban government and established its main operating base at Bagram, north of Kabul, U.S. forces left Pakistan almost entirely. Since then, Pakistan has restricted U.S. involvement in cross-border military operations as well as paramilitary operations on its soil.

But the Pentagon has been frustrated by the inability of Pakistani national forces to control the borders or the frontier area. And Pakistan's political instability has heightened U.S. concern about Islamic extremists there. According to Pentagon sources, reaching a different agreement with Pakistan became a priority for the new head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, Adm. Eric T. Olson. Olson visited Pakistan in August, November and again this month, meeting with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistani Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Gen. Tariq Majid and Lt. Gen. Muhammad Masood Aslam, commander of the military and paramilitary troops in northwest Pakistan. Olson also visited the headquarters of the Frontier Corps, a separate paramilitary force recruited from Pakistan's border tribes.

Now, a new agreement, reported when it was still being negotiated last month, has been finalized. And the first U.S. personnel could be on the ground in Pakistan by early in the new year, according to Pentagon sources.

U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. William Fallon alluded to the agreement and spoke approvingly of Pakistan's recent counterterrorism efforts in an interview with Voice of America last week. "What we've seen in the last several months is more of a willingness to use their regular army units," along the Afghan border, Fallon said. "And this is where, I think, we can help a lot from the U.S. in providing the kind of training and assistance and mentoring based on our experience with insurgencies recently and with the terrorist problem in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think we share a lot with them, and we'll look forward to doing that."

If Pakistan actually follows through, perhaps 2008 will be a better year.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

DEBKA: US to return to Lebanon, build big air installation near Syria

2007-10-10

It's Debka, so take it FWIW. But wouldn't that just twist knickers in Teheran?

The air base, according to DEBKAfiles military sources, will be located at Kleiat in northern Lebanon roughly 75 air miles from Damascus, which these days doubles as a shared Syrian-Iranian military hub and Tehrans eastern Mediterranean forward base. The American air installation will also lie 22 air miles from Tartous, Syrias main naval base and the Russian Mediterranean fleets command center. And the aircraft posted there will be minutes away from the joint Syrian-Iranian arms and missiles industries at Homs and Hamma.

DEBKAfiles source report the Bush administrations drastic change of policy on Lebanon was settled in consultations at the Pentagon and National Security Council after the talks the chief of the US Central Command Adm. William Fallon held with Lebanese government heads on July 29.

This new direction was confirmed after the Israeli air raid over Syria of Sept. 6.

It brings the American military back to Lebanon after a 25-year absence. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan pulled US troops out of the country after Syrian military intelligence orchestrated terrorist bombing attacks on the US embassy and Marines headquarters in Beirut, which left more than 300 soldiers, diplomats and CIA agents dead.

The first stage of construction will reactivate the small defunct air base at Kleiat as a joint US-Lebanese venture. Prime minister Fouad Siniora will explain that the four months of bloody fighting to crush the Fatah al-Islam revolt in the northern Nahar al-Bared camp demonstrated how badly the Lebanese army needs an operational air base in the region. US Air Force engineers and technicians have begun work on the new air field. At a later stage, it will be expanded for American military use.

Link

Afghanistan

Afghan Northern Alliance commander: Taliban talks 'long and complex'

2007-09-22

An anti-Taliban commander who fought alongside US forces during the 2001 invasion predicted that proposed peace talks would be a "long and complex process" but likely would be snubbed by hard-liners and foreign fighters in the Islamic militia.

The comments by Gen. Bismillah Khan - made during a visit by the most senior US military chief for the region - appeared to reflect a more cautious approach by some in the Afghan military toward a push by President Hamid Karzai to open talks with the Taliban. "This could be a beginning," Khan said following meetings with Adm. William Fallon, the head of US Central Command. "But it's a long and complex process. It's not something that will have a significant effect in the short term."

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Abizaid: World could abide nuclear Iran

2007-09-18

Yeah, we may be able to deter Iran from using them. Directly. But the regime has stated that they are at the service of those who would undo the US. Which means to me that they will hand them one-off deniable nuclear material/bombs and wait to see what happens next. In my opinion, Abizaid isn't factoring this in, or he isn't giving it the weight he should be. Or maybe he is . . . .

Insurgency grew during his command. Is shrinking under Petraeus.

I respect the general but I think he's mistaken: once Iran has the bomb it will do two things. First is to mate it to a missile and use the threat of that to cow neighboring states to their well. Second is to work for the day they can hand it to their favorite group of terrorists with plausible deniability. Either outcome is really bad for us.

WASHINGTON - Every effort should be made to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but failing that, the world could live with a nuclear-armed regime in Tehran, a recently retired commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Monday.

John Abizaid, the retired Army general who headed Central Command for nearly four years, said he was confident that if Iran gained nuclear arms, the United States could deter it from using them. "Iran is not a suicide nation," he said. "I mean, they may have some people in charge that don't appear to be rational, but I doubt that the Iranians intend to attack us with a nuclear weapon."

The Iranians are aware, he said, that the United States has a far superior military capability. "I believe that we have the power to deter Iran, should it become nuclear," he said, referring to the theory that Iran would not risk a catastrophic retaliatory strike by using a nuclear weapon against the United States. "There are ways to live with a nuclear Iran," Abizaid said in remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank. "Let's face it, we lived with a nuclear Soviet Union, we've lived with a nuclear China, and we're living with (other) nuclear powers as well."

None of whom were/are waiting for the twelfth imam to appear.

He stressed that he was expressing his personal opinion and that none of his remarks were based on his previous experience with U.S. contingency plans for potential military action against Iran.

Abizaid stressed the dangers of allowing more and more nations to build a nuclear arsenal. And while he said it is likely that Iran will make a technological breakthrough to obtain a nuclear bomb, "it's not inevitable."

Abizaid suggested military action to pre-empt Iran's nuclear ambitions might not be the wisest course. "War, in the state-to-state sense, in that part of the region would be devastating for everybody, and we should avoid it in my mind to every extent that we can," he said. "On the other hand, we can't allow the Iranians to continue to push in ways that are injurious to our vital interests."

So we should avoid war but shouldn't avoid war.

He suggested that many in Iran perhaps even some in the Tehran government are open to cooperating with the West. The thrust of his remarks was a call for patience in dealing with Iran, which President Bush early in his first term labeled one of the "axis of evil" nations, along with North Korea and Iraq. He said there is a basis for hope that Iran, over time, will move away from its current anti-Western stance.

Starting the day after the Mad Mullahs are deposed.

Abizaid's comments appeared to represent a more accommodating and hopeful stance toward Iran than prevails in the White House, which speaks frequently of the threat posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions. The administration says it seeks a diplomatic solution to complaints about Iran's alleged support for terrorism and its nuclear program, amid persistent rumors of preparations for a U.S. military strike.

Abizaid expressed confidence that the United States and the world community can manage the Iran problem. "I believe the United States, with our great military power, can contain Iran that the United States can deliver clear messages to the Iranians that makes it clear to them that while they may develop one or two nuclear weapons they'll never be able to compete with us in our true military might and power," he said.

Containment worked modestly well with the old Soviet Union because nearly the entire West was -- officially, at least -- signed on to it. It didn't work with Iraq because Germany, France, China and Russia wouldn't agree to continue sanctions. Why would anyone think containment work with Iran, given the situation is likely to be similar to Iraq? China and Russia have already made clear that they'll do business with the Mad Mullahs.

He described Iran's government as reckless, with ambitions to dominate the Middle East. "We need to press the international community as hard as we possibly can, and the Iranians, to cease and desist on the development of a nuclear weapon and we should not preclude any option that we may have to deal with it," he said. He then added his remark about finding ways to live with a nuclear-armed Iran.

And if none of that works, what then?

Abizaid made his remarks in response to questions from his audience after delivering remarks about the major strategic challenges in the Middle East and Central Asia the region in which he commanded U.S. forces from July 2003 until February 2007, when he was replaced by Adm. William Fallon.

Link

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