Posted on 09/11/2014 8:04:46 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
Retired Marine Gen. John Allen will coordinate the broad international effort to battle the Islamic State militants, as the campaign against the extremist group ramps up and nations begin to determine what role each will play, U.S. officials said Thursday.
Allen, who has been serving as a security adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry, is expected to work with the almost 40 nations around the world who have agreed to join the fight and help them coordinate what each will contribute, several officials told The Associated Press.
The officials spoke about Allen's expected appointment on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter ahead of an announcement.
Allen comes to the job with vast experience coordinating international allies on the warfront. He served as deputy commander in Iraq's Anbar province from 2006 to 2008, working with Arab partners on organizing the Sunni uprising against al-Qaida. He moved from there to serve for two years as the deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees military troops and operations in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.
Allen next became the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2013, where he worked with international allies who sent troops to the battlefield.
As a result of his experience, Allen is very familiar many of the Middle East nations and leaders considered crucial to the latest effort to degrade and destroy the Islamic State group militants who have seized control of portions of Iraq and Syria in a ruthless reign of terror. He also has worked closely with most of the key military and diplomatic leaders, including Gen. Lloyd Austin, the current head of U.S. Central Command, who will oversee America's military campaign.
President Barack Obama announced Wednesday night that the U.S. will be expanding airstrikes in Iraq and into Syria, in an aggressive move to root out the Islamic State group extremists where ever they are. Obama, Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have spent the last week meeting with international leaders overseas in an effort to build a broad coalition of nations — particularly Arab countries in the region — to aid the fight.
Officials are looking for partners to help train moderate Syrian rebels, work with the Iraqi security forces, contribute equipment, ammunition, intelligence, logistics and funding, as well as possibly also launch airstrikes.
if anyone can do it , a Marine can pull it off
I’d rather see Jim Conway co-opted , but Allen will do
Could it be possible to be a high-up Marine and not be a “political”? Methinks this is Kabuki at its finest.
Our tax dollars at work.
He's not a Gen Mattis, but then again, most generals can't be Mattis. Damn shame. Mattis should be the mold for Marine generals. The Marine version of Patton.
The last remarkable General before Mattis was Peter Pace. Conway was no slouch either.
Correct.
I met Jim Conway once , when he was the Com .
I was /am VERY impressed .
Wish he’d get back into it a bit
Could it be possible to be a high-up Marine and not be a “political”? Methinks this is Kabuki at its finest.
**********************************
No one rises to a 4-star level, since the end of WWII, without playing the political game. This guy has been working for John F’ng Kerry, so we know his style of politics.
Just a couple of days ago I was reading that there were maybe six or seven mid-east Arab countries that MIGHT aid the US in the war on ISIS. ...How did the coalition country count suddenly grow to FORTY? I’m not buying that BS.
Well, this tells ma a TON about John Allen!! He must be a huge lefty.....sad.
Probably why they chose a retiree instead of an active duty guy...
Has this ever been done before? I don’t understand why they want someone outside the normal chain of commands to oversee something linking directly to OdumBO.
And if he isn't, my apologies, but I am really fed up with the liberals.
I cannot believe Allen is doing this. From what I understand from my nephew who served under him in ‘stan back in (IIRC)’08, he was a soldiers soldier.
Does not sound like a person to go to bat for this group of misfits.........and traitors..
If you go back to 2007/08, Gen Allens job in Iraq was to try to shift the Sunni to supporting the central Iraq govt and he was successful. That is why Obama gave him the job in Afghanistan to shift the Taliban.
And this is why Obama gave him this job in Iraq. The main job in Iraq will be to convince the Sunni to abandon their support for ISIS.
As for the rules of engagement, those are found in Counterinsurgency Manual used by both the Army and Marines. Gen Petraeus had the manual rewritten and he hired Col John Nagl to rewrite it. Nagl was the Rhodes Scholar of Counterinsurgency. Petraeus wrote his college thesis on counterinsurgency. Nobody had used the old manual since VietNam.
See #33
If he’s going to be in charge, he should be recalled to active duty and given command of this mess. This appears to be running the war out of the State Department via an advisor.
That is precisely what it is, since we aren’t at war according to our esteemed strategerist, Jon Kerry.
Commissioned officers(including retired) serve at the pleasure of the prez. Even after he was forced to retire, Obama kept him on as the top general in Afghanistan. He got that job when Petraeus moved up to CIA, and held it until the COIN mission ended in Afghanistan
Since when did morality or lack thereof play into Obama’s decisions on anything? He’s deliberately sidestepping what is clearly a DoD function to save face from being a wartime _Resident.
Instead of being just another bitching, moaning, and whining rightwinger who wants to nukem, you ought to try to make the case for a different general who you think is better qualified.
we need General Mattis for the troop morale...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.