Gone Falloning

There's been a lot of attention over the resignation of Adm. Fallon, head of CENTCOM. Most bloggers I've read seen to think he was pushed because of the Esquire article that generated some press.

It seems like an orchestrated departure to me. But orchestrated by whom?

Fallon was brought on by Gates, who pushed Abezaid out, and forced Pace out, and brought in the Navy.

Gates seems to have lost his man at the center of things, would the supreme bureaucrat let his guy at the center of things go for a magazine article? But Fallon now (on March 31, to be exact) can say what he wants to. Could that be the motive of his resignation, and the rest a distraction? We'll know if he does open his yap around April Fools Day, and we can suspect if he meets with an accident in the meantime. It's dangerous out there.

Cheney's little jaunt to the Middle East, seemingly improvised, also fits into the time frame of Fallon's departure neatly. Was it prompted by Fallon's resignation?

Apart from imploring our faithful allies to pump more, faster, faster (like Eliot Spitzer living out his 5K dream), Cheney's visit will probably take him to CENTCOM headquarters for a little pep talk.

Control of operations in that part of the world is a delicate question. The episode of the Iranian motorboats, among others, indicates that there are elements in the military that are obedient to the neo-cons, and screw the chain of command.

Things are heating up, here at Blog Simple we will continue to monitor the situation, and keep you up to date.