I am sure Abizaid's comments were "approved" by Rumsfeld and above...the point is, as a military man, he should have known better than to step into a political fight, regardless of which side he favored.
I am in the military myself, and I have not gone in uniform, in front of the cameras, to make my preference known...regardless of which side he preferred, he needed to keep it to himself.
My guess is Abizaid (as an Arab-American) was asked indirectly by the CiC to give his "opinion" on the matter of Arab/Muslim "bashing" (which are two different things.)
I concur with you that he should have known better than to step into this political fray -- especially as a military commander -- but the WH was THAT desperate to put him in that awkward position, which I deemed patheticly exploitive of Abizaid, AND the American people.