EYEING IRAN: WHY W'S TAPPING ADMIRAL TO HEAD CENTRAL COMMAND

NY Post ^ | Ralph Peters

[slowhand520]

EYEING IRAN WHY W'S TAPPING ADMIRAL TO HEAD CENTRAL COMMAND

January 6, 2007 -- WORD that Adm. William Fallon will move laterally from our Pacific Command to take charge of Central Command - responsible for the Middle East - while two ground wars rage in the region baffled the media.

Why put a swabbie in charge of grunt operations?

There's a one-word answer: Iran.

ASSIGNING a Navy avia tor and combat veteran to oversee our military operations in the Persian Gulf makes perfect sense when seen as a preparatory step for striking Iran's nuclear-weapons facilities - if that becomes necessary.

While the Air Force would deliver the heaviest tonnage of ordnance in a campaign to frustrate Tehran's quest for nukes, the toughest strategic missions would fall to our Navy. Iran would seek to retaliate asymmetrically by attacking oil platforms and tankers, closing the Strait of Hormuz - and trying to hit oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates.

Only the U.S. Navy - hopefully, with Royal Navy and Aussie vessels underway beside us - could keep the oil flowing to a thirsty world.

In short, the toughest side of an offensive operation against Iran would be the defensive aspects - requiring virtually every air and sea capability we could muster. (Incidentally, an additional U.S. carrier battle group is now headed for the Gulf; Britain and Australia are also strengthening their naval forces in the region.)

Not only did Adm. Fallon command a carrier air wing during Operation Desert Storm, he also did shore duty at a joint headquarters in Saudi Arabia. He knows the complexity and treacherousness of the Middle East first-hand.

[arthurus]

Failure in Iraq is failure in the sideshow. Failure in Iraq is entirely failure in Washington. If we "fail" in Iraq i.e. get pulled out by the politicians, but then take out Iran, as we must do if we are to avoid a much worse war a few years or maybe a few months down the road, then all the fuss about Iraq will have been terribly insignificant. If we "fail" in Iraq and then do nothing real about Iran, then, yes, we have truly failed and the United States will pay bloodily for that failure, but Iraq is not the locus of that failure. Iran is. Getting fixated on Iraq is the obsession that is getting the effort cut up in Congress and in the country right now. The strategists and the politicians have seemingly lost sight of what this war is all about. If the goal is creation of a democracy in Iraq, then we have already failed. It cannot be done in an Islamic society by outsiders without stunning the population the way we stunned the Japanese and German populations in WWII. It took the horrible firebombings and the nukes to stun those populations into malleability and both were modern states; Germany even shared much of our same Western tradition but the population still had to be clubbed. And we are still there! in both countries! Neither was a quick proposition so why do you suppose we can democratize as alien a population as exists anywhere on Earth withoug doing to that population what we had to do to our near kin in Germany?

[Vermont Lt]

Carolyn,

By the time you hear it in the "street" its too late. I recall sitting in a hot tub in '99 listening to a local cop give me stock advice. (At the time I was a Sr VP at a large national bank.) I went home and sold all of my internet and technology stocks the next day. I missed the peak, but didnt get killed. I was reminded of Joe Kennedy's story of getting stock tips from the shoe shine boy in '29.

The best thing to do, if you arent used to investing like this, is start small and dont be afraid to pull the trigger. Commodities are dangerous things to put any of your "real" money into. Futures of any kind should be hedged...and by the way you are talking, that is above your pay grade. No insult intended...but be safe and limit your risk.

[corlorde]

Also for consideration is the fact that both Lt. Gen. Petraeus and Adm. Fallon are true believers and on board with the upcoming "troop surge." General Petraeus was the brains behind the 101st's success in Northern Iraq, and it is expected that the five or so "Strike Brigades" will largely be coming out of the 18th ABN CORPS...in hopes that the administration will see the same kind of successes.

Petraeus now heads the Army's Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and helped rewrite the military's manual on counterinsurgency; something we have been woefully inadequate at lo these past few years. It remains to be seen how the newer doctrine will play out. It will force our ground fighters to be back in the villages.

[arthurus]

It's front an center because failure there after we have done so much and made it so important is a disaster.

This is pure emotion and is quite at cross purposes with the prosecution of the Islamic War.

[Grampa Dave]

[Grampa Dave]

This is a very interesting map. No wonder the friends of Iran Islamofacism, the rats of America, want GW out of power.

The US Navy has one/two/? carrier groups in the Persian Gulf, and Iran is fully aware of the power of those carrier groups.

[P.O.E.]

Either we take Iran down hard, or I'm afraid many more innocent Westerners will die. Us or Them, self-defense.

[Grampa Dave]

Latest from Drudge re probable/possible attack by Israel on Iran:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1763497/posts

Paper (Sunday Times): Israel Plans Nuclear Strike on Iran
drudge ^


Posted on 01/06/2007 2:28:54 PM PST by maquiladora


Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons, the SUNDAY TIMES of London is planning to report, British media sources tell DRUDGE... MORE...

PAPER: ISRAEL PLANS NUCLEAR STRIKE ON IRAN

[Repeal The 17th]

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For reference, see "Where are the Carriers?" (click here)

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[Repeal The 17th]

Looks like "Checkmate" to me.

[BIGLOOK]

What was the price of a barrel of crude Friday? I think it was $55.62/bbl. Granted, a mild winter counts for a couple of bucks in the decrease but seven or eight bucks?

I love competition in the market.

Iran's move.

[quesera]

What matters more is that more carriers are being brought to bear.

Also the appointment of a Navy Admiral to CENTCOM, British and Australian ship on the way to the area. That really is all I needed to know.

W must have realized that part of fixing the problem in Iraq is to deal with Iran's interference and I guess might as well take care of their nuclear program in the process which we must do in any conflict involving Iran. We've known for some time that Iran has a big part in causing the mess in Iraq, in fact just the other day I read that they are funding both sides of the insurgency. It is about time that we deal with this mess. Perhaps the men in Washington are finally waking up, at least I hope so.

[RightWhale]

Lots of Marines ashore would be my guess.

[Thumper1960]

So it begins.

Iran has little time to reorganize its priorities, jettison its disruptive leaderships and pull back from the brink of its destruction. They are not going toe to toe with Saddam and Iraq, here. They will have to deal with a battered economy, a brutalized military infrastructure and a population screaming for an end to their inevitable pains and sufferings.

[Thumper1960]

Iran isn't Iraq. Iranians aren't Iraqis. The demographics of Iran wouldn't make it necessary to insert a half million US troops. Persians will act differently to the overthrow of a repressive Islamic mullah dominated regime.

[Elle Bee]

and let's not ever forget that if Jimmy Carter had a pair ... this wouldn't be an issue today

.

[Grampa Dave]

"Looks like "Checkmate" to me."

Which explains why the pro Islamofascist rats in congress and the MSM are in such a panic to get us out of Iraq.

[RobbyS]

What I cannot get straight is how policy was made in the summer of 2003, why the invasion force was immediately pulled from the theatre rather than being resupplied and used to close the frontiers while the new troops were used, as they were to provide security in the Baghdad and elsewhere. Nothing I have read tells me that, and I guess it is that despite all the leaking that there was deep disagreement within the administration.

[RobbyS]

Where did you get this map?

[dakine]

"Now it is the Navy's turn at Command."

Probably has already been replied to...but CENTCOM has always been Army or Marine led...never before has it had Navy at the top....but you knew that, move along...