The Gingerbread House Continues to Crumble

The United States Central Command has one less Admiral in its ranks. William Fallon has stepped down from what many believe to be “Presidential pressures”. Of course the official reason behind his retirement is so politically obnoxious it makes me wanna puke:

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the decision to take early retirement was entirely Adm Fallon’s, added that he agreed it was the right thing to do.

“I have approved Admiral Fallon’s request to retire with reluctance and regret,” he told reporters at the Pentagon, adding that he would be sorely missed.

Why is there suspicion that Admiral Fallon was pushed out of the ranks by the Bush camp?

Esquire (yeah, the men’s magazine) printed a wonderful article about the dance between Fallon and the White House.

Just as Fallon took over Centcom last spring, the White House was putting itself on a war footing with Iran. Almost instantly, Fallon began to calmly push back against what he saw as an ill-advised action. Over the course of 2007, Fallon’s statements in the press grew increasingly dismissive of the possibility of war, creating serious friction with the White House.

Fallon told Arabic television Al Jazeera last fall that, “This constant drumbeat of conflict . . . is not helpful and not useful. I expect that there will be no war, and that is what we ought to be working for. We ought to try to do our utmost to create different conditions.”

To you or me it seems like a fairly logical statement. Our nation’s military is stretched beyond its ability and our economy is sinking faster than a dead body in the Hudson River. This isn’t much of a secret to the rest of the world.

But to the White House, Fallon’s statement isn’t logical… it’s a threat to their policy. If you aren’t with the Bush administration’s policies then you must be against it. And apparently, Fallon is against it.

War with Iran is an empty threat by the Bush administration. You know that. I know know that. And Fallon knows that. There’s no question that our military will crumble under the stress of “occupying” a third Middle Eastern country (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran). It would be disasterous to start war with Iran. Financially. Militarily. Our nation would spiral even further into the abyss we’ve been catapulted in by the current administration. It isn’t logical to continue an aggressive stance when we’re still trying to repair the damage the last 5 years has brought on the American image.

In the mean time, Fallon has “voluntarily retired”, the White House continues its machismo against the rest of the world, and we can all count our pennies as the markets crash and the world loses its faith in America.

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