Rumsfeld Quietly Sidesteps General Franks With Proven Airborne Ranger Warfighter.

WashTimes "Inside Ring" | Gertz/Scarborough

[MindBender26]

Pentagon chatter says Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld finally has his own man at U.S. Central Command to supervise a war against Iraq: Army Lt. Gen. John P. Abizaid.

Officials said the hard-charging Mr. Rumsfeld was not always happy with the way Gen. Tommy Franks ran the war in Afghanistan. He has worried that Gen. Franks, chief of U.S. Central Command, will not be innovative enough in waging war against Iraq.

Now, however, Mr. Rumsfeld has plucked a general from the Joint Staff at the Pentagon and sent him to Central Command as Mr. Franks' deputy. In fact, Gen. Abizaid is already at CentCom's warfighting command center in Qatar getting ready to direct a war.

It was an odd move, given that CentCom already had a deputy commander, who is staying at its Tampa headquarters. But it does give Mr. Rumsfeld a deputy in the Gulf region whom he fully trusts.

A favorite of the defense secretary, Gen. Abizaid is a West Point graduate and career infantryman who speaks fluent Arabic, a skill that should help with Persian Gulf allies.

He also speaks German and Italian, a skill that helped when he commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Germany in 1999-2000.

[MindBender26]

This is very significant.

There are two types of Generals and Admirals; the warfighters and the politicos.

Warfighters are exactly that. They fight, and win wars. They command troops in active combat units.

Politicos work primarily at the Pentagon. They are critically important to keep supplies and manpower flowing the civilians off the Warfighters bask.

Don’t knock the politicos. Both are needed to win wars. History is loaded with great combinations of Warfighters/Politicos that brought us victory. Schwartzkoph/Powell. Eisenhower/Marshal, Halsey/King, etc.

The problem is that sometimes Politicos are placed in charge of units that Warfighters should command. General Franks is a fine man (2 months junior to me at Field Artillery OCS), but he is not a war fighter. He has primarily had support jobs, staff positions, etc.

General Abizaid is different. He is an archetypical Warfighter. Compare his resume to Franks: “Lieutenant General Abizaid was commissioned a second lieutenant of Infantry upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in June 1973. He started his career with the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he served as a rifle and scout platoon leader. He commanded companies in the 2nd and 1st Ranger Battalions, leading a Ranger Rifle Company during the invasion of Grenada. Lieutenant General Abizaid commanded the 3rd Battalion, 325th Airborne Battalion combat Team in Vicenza, Italy, during the Gulf crisis and deployed with the battalion to Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. His brigade command was the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. He served as the Assistant Division Commander, 1st Armored Division, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Following that tour, he served as the 66th Commandant at West Point. Most recently, he commanded 1st Infantry Division, the "Big Red One," in Wurzburg. The 1st Infantry Division formed the core of Task Force Falcon in Kosovo.” Bottom line, Abizaid will be made ADC (Assistant Division Commander) for “Operations’ or “Maneuver” some thing like. He will kick ass, take names, and run the combat, the Warfighting end of this operation.

Not good news for Saddam.

[cynicom]

Franks said he made the military a career because he liked being saluted. I always thought that had much to say about his character.

[Maynerd]

Thank you for your insight.

[xzins]

probably meant by franks as humor.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Does this indicate anything relative to the timing of any action?

[patton]

B/3/325 Bump.

[xzins]

I do agree with your separation of military leaders into warriors and politicos. That's as good an insight as any.

I don't know Franks or Abazaid. It's not uncommon to give a peacetime commander a warrior deputy AND vice versa.

[struwwelpeter]

1st ID in Wuerzburg? What happened to 3rd ID?

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"There are two types of Generals and Admirals; the warfighters and the politicos."

Alwyas nominated by the President
BUT
ALWAYS confirmed by the Senate.
Don't like a particular admiral or general?
Check to see which Senators confirmed that person.

[cynicom]

Not humor at all. That is a quote from his bio by Franks as to why he chose the military.

[VaBthang4]

ping

[Mr. Mojo]

Abizaid

A Muslim?

[MindBender26]

Isn't it usually rubber stamp, unless, God forbig, the poor General ever said he likes to date women, which makes him a sexist, of course, etc....

[USNBandit]

Franks started getting pushed aside after the opportunity to hit Mullah Omar with a Predator launched Hellfire was fonged away. Franks was advised by a JAG officer that it might not be legal to kill a political leader. A lot of people have seen something like this coming. Hell, if Franks can't keep the job having graduated from the same high school two classes ahead of the first lady then he has some issues.

[MindBender26]

No. Christian.

[WOSG]

this is one piece of good news.

It goes without saying that we need some verterans from Gulf War I in this operation. hope they are getting the right leaders in place at all levels.

[cynicom]

Abizaid is Lebenese american

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[It was an odd move, given that CentCom already had a deputy commander, who is staying at its Tampa headquarters. But it does give Mr. Rumsfeld a deputy in the Gulf region whom he fully trusts.]

Post-clinton, this is quite understandable.

[MindBender26]

Didn't know him in OCS, but it was just a mill then. Keep your mouth shut, pass a few tests, graduate with gold bars. None of the Tac officers were RVN vets, still teaching line, as opposed to circular emplacement of howitzers, etc.

We probably graduated 70% of our class, which was about 20% too high.