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.

[PatriotGames]

Gen'l Franks was seen as too conservative during the Afghan war. He had to be prodded into becoming more aggressive both by Mr. Rumsfeld and the Afghans in the North. When he was finally and literally pushed into becoming aggressive the Taliban folded. The war would have taken less time if he had been aggressive from day one.

[dk/coro]

The difference in mind-set between the two types is startling.

I had the pleasure of joining an old warrior -- Admiral Tom Moorer -- as his Personal Aide for a short tour in 1967 as a young commander between tours in SEA as a Naval Aviator.

I had an unusual vantage point in my capacity that year -- and observed 3 and 4 star officers "up close and personal" -- often running interference for the boss; And tightening up his schedule to keep these turkeys off his back.

IMHO, placing the bean counters in a position of operational authority will --without exception -- cause enormous grief --in loss of lives -- but also in morale, retention, and general effectiveness/economy of mission.

Admiral Zumwalt and Admiral Boorda are classic examples of failed leadership -- and both were most adequate as senior "staff pukes", but failed miserably as CNO's. At enormous cost to the Naval Sevice, I might add.

Further, a close perusal of their career patterns (Zumwalt and Boorda) should have signalled this "slating" problem to even marginally competent Naval planners. They blew it wretchedly.

Shame on us !! I took early retirement as a Captain to protest cumulative and blatant operational ineptness --such as (Zumwalt) flagging a four-star SUBMARINER to head the Pacific Fleet during the height of a Naval AIR war in Tonkin Gulf. "Undambelievable" , but it happened.

[xzins]

I sort of remember something like that.

But it was still his war plan. Maybe he's a planning genius and needs a good butt kickin' every now and then. LOL.

[dogbrain]

"I personally never met a general who wasn't a very
capable, brilliant person in some area of expertise."

Did you ever meet THIS general?

[xzins]

Wasn't Boorda the suicider? Did you see that in him?

Fascinating stuff. You should fire emails to Ollie North for his War Stories pieces on FoxNews.....I'm listening to him in the background right now.

[cynicom]

Burnsides one claim to fame was sideburns....

[Nix 2]

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld announced Oct. 4 that the president had nominated Maj. Gen. John P. Abizaid for appointment to the grade of lieutenant general and assignment as director of the Joint Staff in Washington, D.C.

Abizaid, a U.S. Military Academy Class of 1973 graduate, served as the 66th commandant for the Corps of Cadets here, USMA,) from 1997 to 1999.

A native of Coleville, Calif., Abizaid holds a Master’s degree in area studies from Harvard and was the Olmsted Scholar at the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan.

His military experience includes serving as the assistant division commander of the 1st Armored Division in Bosnia/Herzegovina; commander of both the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division and the 3rd Battalion/325th Airborne Battalion Combat Team; with whom he deployed to Kurdistan in Northern Iraq during the Gulf War.

Some of Abizaid’s staff assignments include a tour as operations officer for the UN Observer Group Lebanon, serving as executive assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and deputy director of the Strategy, Plans and Policy Directorate in Washington, D.C.

Abizaid’s decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with three Oak Leaf Clusters and the Bronze Star....(and more.)

**********************************

He wrote one of the definitive journals on urban warfare, was in Beiruit when terrorists were attacking night and day, is Lebanese Christian and has not much love for the factions who murdered most of the Christians in Lebanon and so many Marines to turn Lebanon into a surrogate Syria. He does not love them AT ALL.
This guy is a meateater and a weed whacker and knows the mind of the terrorists as well as the terrain they will be going into, should the need arise.
No disrespect, but Tommy Franks is a desk guy now, and not so well equipped to handle an all out mid-east war. Gen. Franks does not know the enemy he will be fighting. Abizaid is, does,...and will.

[cynicom]

Moorer and Singlaub have some new writings out, very interesting, deals with Korea.

[xzins]

I never met Kennedy.

She was probably an "equal opportunity" promotion. Wasn't she in some support branch....finance, AG, something like that? My guess, though, is that in her OWN field, she was pretty bright.

[JackelopeBreeder]

3rd ID is now home-based at Fort Stewart.

[Fred Mertz]

Admiral Zumwalt and Admiral Boorda are classic examples of failed leadership -- and both were most adequate as senior "staff pukes", but failed miserably as CNO's.

Why was Boorda taken out?

[JackelopeBreeder]

Please do not post anything even remotely related to that b!tch without the mandatory barf alert attached.

[JackelopeBreeder]

She was Military Intelligence branch. But we disowned her.

[cynicom]

What was that little squirrels name, wore glasses, navy I think, was intelligence, had odd name???

[xzins]

As an LTG, she would've been chief of most combat support, service support branches. Is MI run by a 3 star?

She was doing something different with her stars, wasn't she? Had some staff job in the 5-gon.

[dogbrain]

...sorry Jack B.,

Didn't know the break-up was messy....

I won't mention General Claudia Kennedy again.

Really.

[JackelopeBreeder]

She spent most of her time as a staff puke, thanks be to God. The few times she had any authority, her subordinates despised her. "Screw the mission; beautify the position." was her motto. I knew a lot of excellent female MI professionals during my career, both officer and enlisted. Claudia wouldn't even make the "mediocre" list.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"Isn't it usually rubber stamp"

No, general or admiral is like being confirmed like a
federal judge, cabinet appointment etc by the Senate.
klintoon appointees were confirmed by Republicn Majority Senate.

[JackelopeBreeder]

I think you're thinking of Commodore Grace Hopper. Now there was a military intelligence professional. The Navy would have kept her until she was 200 years old. They even named a ship after her. Only Stephen Hawking could keep up with her mind.

[JackelopeBreeder]

Amplification -- they named a fighting ship after her.