NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

Pentagon's Gates Recommends Changes in U.S. Commanders for Iraq

Army's Petraeus would replace Casey; Navy's Fallon would succeed Abizaid

With President Bush preparing to make a major policy speech on Iraq on January 10, Defense Secretary Robert Gates set the stage by recommending two new U.S. military commanders for the region.

The shifts, if approved by President Bush and the Senate, would give the president more flexibility in his Iraq strategy by bringing in popular new commanders. However, military analysts said that the shifts would not lead automatically to a dramatic change of course in Iraq. "It may be very easy to read far too much into this," said Anthony Cordesman of the independent Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Gates has recommended that Bush promote Lieutenant General Dave Petraeus to four-star general and assign him to command coalition forces in Iraq. Gates also recommended that Bush nominate Admiral William Fallon to replace Army General John Abizaid as chief of U.S. Central Command, which oversees military interests in the Middle East, the Horn of Africa and Central Asia. Currently, Fallon is chief of U.S. Pacific Command, the senior U.S. military headquarters for East Asia.

Gates also has recommended that General George Casey, current commander of Multi-National Forces - Iraq (MNF-I), be named the new Army chief of staff.

Both Abizaid and General Pete Schoomaker, the current Army chief of staff, are due to retire from military service.

Gates made the recommendations in a statement released by the Pentagon late January 5. President Bush has been meeting with senior Iraq policy advisers for the past several weeks and was expected to make an important speech January 10 on U.S. policy in Iraq. Gates visited Iraq in mid-December 2006, hours after being sworn in as the new Pentagon chief, and briefed the president on his findings.

The United States will mark its fourth anniversary in Iraq in March. About 140,000 U.S. troops remain in the country, where they are assisting the elected government in establishing security and democratic institutions following the overthrow of the late dictator Saddam Hussein.

Stephen Biddle, senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent research group that provides nonpartisan analysis, said the new U.S. military leadership sets the stage for a possible strategy shift, if the president chooses. "The officers who were committed to the present strategy in Iraq are no longer in charge," Biddle said. Those named to the new posts represent "a new group who haven't publicly commented" on current or previous Iraq strategy, Biddle said. "This creates a potential for a major change in course but doesn't guarantee" one. Ultimately, he said, any change in strategy would be made or approved by the president.

Cordesman said some observers view the announcement as a change in course, but in reality, Gates has recommended "excellent combat officers" to replace officers who have been long overdue to rotate or retire. Casey is being promoted to help reshape the U.S. Army for the 21st century, and Abizaid has been seeking retirement for a year, Cordesman said. He added that similar command changes are under way in Afghanistan, but nobody has speculated about significant strategy changes in that country.

In his public statement January 5, Gates said that Casey is ideally suited to be the next Army chief of staff, the most senior uniformed position in the U.S. Army. "As commander of Multi-National Forces - Iraq, he has overseen the largest sustained ground forces operation by the U.S. military in a generation," Gates said.

Petraeus already has served two tours in Iraq. He led the 101st Airborne Division when U.S. and coalition forces first entered Iraq in 2003. On his second tour, Petraeus oversaw the training of the new Iraqi army. He is currently commander of the Army's Combined Arms Center in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he supervised the publication in December of a major update to the Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency manual. He is considered one of the most respected American military commanders in the Middle East.

Fallon, if approved by the U.S. Senate, would be the first Navy admiral to be chief of U.S. Central Command, which until now has been led by Army or Marine Corps generals. However, in the past several years, the Joint Chiefs increasingly have recommended senior officers with new viewpoints to the top U.S. military commands worldwide. For example, General Peter Pace, current chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is the first Marine Corps officer to hold that position, which is the senior military post in the United States. Another Marine, General James Jones, recently completed his tour as the first Marine Corps officer to head U.S. forces in Europe and NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.

Fallon would bring "a fresh perspective to the challenges America faces in the Central Command's area of operations," Gates said.

The full text of Gates' statement is available on the Department of Defense Web site.

Source: U.S. Department of State