And shows the importance of not having voted for the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment (Hillary Clinton), declaring Iran's military a terrorist organization and thus paving the way to war for Bush and the neo-cons.

I'm very worried. Hope someone is watching this VERY closely and making sure Bush doesn't start a war with Iran, part of his vaunted "Axis of Evil", any time in the next 9 months till we can get him out of office.

Become a mainstay of the US military?

I understand that the military is beholden to civilian commanders. That's the system, and frankly, its the best in the world. But doesn't some kind of experience in the military offer someone an opportunity to disagree with policy? Is there some kind of unspoken code that a policy disagreement between the military and the White House must never occur and that military commanders can't have opinions (public or otherwise) on policy matters that lead to war?

Is Fallon even QUOTED in the article? Is it his fault that his actions are interpreted by Esquire to be at odds with the administration? The military is meant to protect and defend the constitution, not to be supplicant to a President. These people are the "experienced" ones that we should be looking to for advice, not firing because of their experience.

Truth tellers need not apply; asskissers and bootlickers only.

There is a typo at the end of this article: It should read that FALLON will be replaced by his deputy, Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, not PETRAEUS.

How about starting a thread about Ferraro's comments?

Here's the (AP) story on Salon:

http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/2008/03/11/D8VBD52G0_clinton_ferraro/index.html

Glad somebody caught that mistake regarding Fallon being replaced by his deputy, not Petraeus. Good catch, ScottE!

Thanks for the catch. I'm fixing it now.

The Admiral knew that his career was over the minute that article hit print. Top military do not get to disagree, however mildly, with the civilian leadership in public. That privilege is reserved for enlisted people.

That said, I wish Commander Codpiece would listen to his admirals as well as his generals, especially in this case. And anyone who thinks that Kyl-Lieberman won't be used to take George and Dick's Totally Bogus Adventure on the road to Iran is either willfully negligent or criminally stupid.

If the "lone voice against taking action against Iran" is resigning, it's a bad, bad sign. Especially when the U.S. has stationed additional warships in the region, and when Israel's Debka website (run by former Mossad agents) is reporting that the IDF is expecting something major to occur in the latter half of March.

The only thing I know about this is that a "man" who is in a postition to make a difference in the state of war of this nation cut and ran. Officers are authorized by their oath of office to challenge illegal orders. He did not. He is a coward. The Winter Soldiers have more courage than all of the current military and administration to whom they are servants.

I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation

peace,

st john

...we might have Clinton or Mcain to send our good ship lolly pop into the bloodier than bloody realities of what a war with Iran would really bring, that is, if Bush doesn't do it first. I think I'll go with the Obama alternative. I don't wish for or invite four more deadly years of death and disasters upon my country.

...Was Fallon not evangelical enough to assist bringing on Armageddon for the "Jesus" crowd. Maybe the next guy will get in line with BushCo and his hand picked military holy-rollers.

While American liberals were wringing their hands over the "Betrayus" flap and whether or not it implied insufficient fervor in one's support for the military establishment, Fallon came right out and called Petraeus "chickenshit."

He took no guff and minced few words in his support of legitimate American strategic aims above the political convenience, personal whims, and flight-suit prancing of his fantasist-in-chief and the grotesque ass-kissing coterie that surrounds him.

Now someone apparently wants him out of the way in a hurry, and that can only mean bad, bad things. Remember all those conversations about how "if only we had known how bad things would get, we would have protested the war more?"

You might get your chance for a do-over. Hope you were serious.

Like Colin Powell, Fallon had his fill with Bush and buddies. Did you notice how Gates tries to make out that Fallon is the bad guy?

R M Kraus

Akron

should not be referred to as retirees. Our militaries entire top echeleon in fact should not be termed "early retired" but deserters. Desertion is a much more apt description of the behavior of our uniformed military leadership during this war.

Look for Fallon to be replaced by the Iraq commander for special ops -- the guy in charge of invading and countering Iranians in Iraq.

Wonder if they'll invade Iran just before the election, or wait till after.

Is to take out the Iranian oil refinery......Let's go, folks!!!

Not Spitzer, not Ferraro, but the forced resignation of Admiral Fallon is absoluely the most important story. Sadly, it's mostly not even being covered.

In the middle of a growing push to bomb Iran, Admiral Fallon said the US would NOT bomb Iran on his watch. He talked about how we didn't have the personnel or equipment to do it. Not because we couldn't drop enough bombs to take them off the map, but because we couldn't do the cleanup and rebuilding after. He said that he and most other regular military top line commanders were against starting up with Iran for the same reasons.

An example of the immediate difference he made was refusing to put the 3rd carrier group into the Persian Gulf like Cheney and therefore Bush were calling for. Cheney was trying his best to provoke trouble with Iran so he could get Bush to say we had to respond to whatever action Iran took in response to our provocation.

He took the temperature down a notch. The joint intelligence report that was leaked took more wind out of the bomb Iran sails, but it mattered that the Commander of Cent Com was also against action in Iran.

Admiral Fallon was saying things publicly that made it harder for Bush to play his "I'm taking guidance from my senior military people, and Congress should too" game. If those comments had gone privately to the President, Bush/Cheney could have gone on with the Iran plot, and we would have had no way to know what advice the military was giving him.

Admiral Fallon was supposed to be Petraeus' boss, but Petraeus was skipping along with the surge with direct support from Bush & Comopany. Petraeus should have made his recommendations to Fallon for evaluation before Fallon made his own recommendations to the Joint Chiefs and Bush. That wasn't how it worked, but Adm. Fallon made public comments about the surge and Iraq that attempted to keep that situation honest.

Now that voice for reason and sanity is gone. The door to bomb Iran is open, and Keith Olbermann does a "special comment" on Ferraro (he's even wrong on that, but that's for another post).