Push for New Direction Leads to Sudden Dead End for a 40-Year Naval Career(Adm. William Fallon)

[maddezmom]

By ELAINE SCIOLINO
Published: May 31, 2008
FLORENCE, Italy

Stefan Zaklin/European Pressphoto Agency
"I don’t tolerate fools. I challenge every briefing and pitch. If people present me with only one solution to the problem, I’m the type to reject it immediately." ADM. WILLIAM J. FALLON

HIS friends call him Fox, and for years William J. Fallon was considered one of America’s most successful four-star admirals, serving most recently as the commander of military operations in the territory stretching from the Horn of Africa across Central Asia.

Now, the 63-year-old former aviator is struggling with reinvention, nudged into early retirement in March after a 40-year naval career because of his blunt talk that left the perception he was disloyal to his commander in chief.

Breaking his silence since his departure in an hourlong interview, Admiral Fallon said he had felt the pressure building for several months. He had, after all, taken public positions favoring diplomacy over force in Iran, troop withdrawals from Iraq that were greater than officially planned and more high-level attention to Afghanistan.

But the catalyst for his departure was not a policy disagreement with the White House, he said; it was an article in Esquire magazine this year that portrayed him as the man standing between President Bush and war against Iran.

If the admiral’s comments had been kept behind the closed doors of the White House and the Pentagon, he might have survived. The problem was that in the highly hierarchical world of the military, in which the cardinal rule is to salute — not break ranks with — the president, his dissent was simply too public.

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/world/middleeast/31fallon.html?em&ex=1212379200&en=fc416b38a3030b6e&ei=5087%0A

[DavidDvorkin]

1. "Disloyal to his commander in chief"

His oath of loyalty was to the Constitution, not to any commander-in-chief, of course.

Media discussions of loyalty within the administration always ignore that and instead act as though they were discussing Medieval history.

[maddezmom]

2. Mullen calls people cowards for speaking up after they leave the military

and says they have a duty to speak up while they are active. And yet we know what happens to them if they do. :puke:

[Demeter]

3. At Least He Gets to Retire (With Pension and health benefits)

It could be so much worse--and is for most folks.