FALLON ON HIS WAY OUT?

Via ThinkProgress, Thomas Barnett suggests that Admiral William Fallon may be on his way out as CENTCOM chief.

[W]ell-placed observers now say that it will come as no surprise if Fallon is relieved of his command before his time is up next spring, maybe as early as this summer, in favor of a commander the White House considers to be more pliable. If that were to happen, it may well mean that the president and vice-president intend to take military action against Iran before the end of this year and don’t want a commander standing in their way.

There was much gnashing of teeth in the lefty blogosphere when Fallon was hired; why would we need a Navy admiral in CENTCOM unless we wanted to attack Iran? It turned out, of course, that Fallon has had a sensible position on Iran, as has the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen. Moreover, Fallon's sensibility on this issue wasn't exactly a secret; if I was hearing that Fallon would resist action against Iran, then the Powers that Be must have been hearing it, too. As such, I'm still pretty skeptical on the "attack Iran" front; I think that Fallon's lukewarm support of the Surge (which the PTB feel has been a staggering success) is probably reason enough to see him go.

-- Robert Farley