The Republicans better fire up another resolution, this time denouncing Admiral Fallon:
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.
That extraordinarily contentious start of Fallon’s mission to Baghdad led to more meetings marked by acute tension between the two commanders. Fallon went on develop his own alternative to Petraeus’s recommendation for continued high levels of U.S. troops in Iraq during the summer.
The enmity between the two commanders became public knowledge when the Washington Post reported Sep. 9 on intense conflict within the administration over Iraq. The story quoted a senior official as saying that referring to “bad relations” between them is “the understatement of the century”.
Fallon’s derision toward Petraeus reflected both the CENTCOM commander’s personal distaste for Petraeus’s style of operating and their fundamental policy differences over Iraq, according to the sources.
How dare someone disagree with Petraeus. Besides, in one Friedman unit, all you lefties sure are going to look stupid when everything is ok in Iraq.
semper fubar
So, for what fraction of a F.U. will Fallon still have his CENTCOM job?
I’ll go first with the predictions: He’ll be “retiring” .041 of an F.U. from today.
benjoya
forget it. fallon’s back on the bus:
“What’s going on now in the security business in Iraq is that things are substantially improved,” he said. “By almost any measure, any statistical analysis of what’s happened in the last few months, there’s been an improvement.”
Third Eye Open
Anyone who didn’t expect Fallon to wander back onto the reserve, doesn’t understand the least about career military officers…of recent times, at least.
To be quite honest, I would prefer to have him in CENTCOM, being the best check we have on Cheney et. al and their Iranian Pony Safety Society, or I-PISS, if you will.
BFR
Interesting week with Petraeus’ little “gaffe” (he’s way too smart for that to have been an accident – you don’t think he knew that question was going to come up?) & this leaking out. Kinda makes me think the military is starting to push back a little bit at different levels.
Third Eye Open
FUCK! Iranian Pony Illusory Safety Society…
don’t you hate it when you realize that you’re just not as clever as your standard bananna slug?
ThymeZone
All we need now is the memo from the White House to the Pentagon saying that they were wondering of the Chiefs could send over an ass-kissing little chickenshit, for a very important assignment.
Tom Hilton
Why does CENTCOM hate America?
Bubblegum Tate
It is, a bit.
While we’re on the subject, I remember reading a news story (probably a wire story) a couple days ago about how several other top military folks were sharply disagreeing with Petraeus and were drawing up alternate recommendations that included a large and swift drawback of forces. I think one of the guys involved was one of the head honchos at the Navy. Now I can’t find an article to that effect. Anybody got a linky for me?
Tsulagi
Go Navy!
Rick Taylor
Hee, I remember month after month reading how silly we lefties would look after they found all those wmd in Iraq. Ahhhh, memories.
dennis brown
Truth is a terrible thing – so now we know that an ass kissing, loser gave a report on Iraq that says things are improving – shit, are the troops in trouble.
mclaren
Remember — the next six months are the crucial period for Iraq!