Admiral William Fallon Resigns as Centcom Commander
Admiral William Fallon has resigned as the Commander of Centcom. His resignation follows an Esquire magazine story that said Fallon was basically standing in the way of the Bush Administration starting a war with Iran. The BBC reports that Fallon cited articles like this as a reason for deciding to retire.
He cited the "embarrassing situation and public perception of differences between my views and administration policy" as the reason for retiring.
An article by Esquire magazine said he was opposed to the use of force against Iran over its nuclear activities.
Adm Fallon said he did not believe there were differences over policy objectives.
The 63-year-old admiral became head of the US Central Command - which covers an area from the Horn of Africa into central Asia and includes responsibility for US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan - a year ago.
US Defense Secretary doesn't think they are differences between Fallon's ideas and the Bush administration's policies.
He said "there is a misperception" that the admiral disagreed with the Bush administration's policies towards Iran. "I don't think there were differences at all," Mr Gates said.
A statement released by Adm Fallon through Central Command's Florida headquarters seemed to reflect those sentiments.
"I don't believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command," he said.
"The simple perception that there is makes it difficult for me to effectively serve America's interests there."
Gates also said the belief that U.S. was now going to go to war with Iran now that Fallon was out is "ridiculous."
Why is Fallon resigning over what the public perception of him is? Why should that be so cruicial? A great deal of the public was vastly unaware of it and a small few even read Esquire. His resignation reasons are a lot different then the many who resign to spend more time with their family. The CentCom Commander did state last year that an attack on Iran "will not happen on my watch." Fallon has also called the Esquire article "really disrespectful and ugly."
Fallon's Deputy, Martin E. Dempsey, will take over as acting commander of Centcom on March 31st, 2008.
