EVERY NOW AND THEN, IT ALL SEEMS OK...

...and right now for a second it does. Kelso's first non-9/11 9/11 was blissful. La Prensa carried nothing about "tragic events." No flags at half mast. No mawkish bullshit on TV. Another day.

Rosh Hashashana in Paitilla (kind of the Panama City equivalent of "The Upper West Side") glorious. Great meal. Mix of Ashkenaz and Sephard classic dishes. Booze flowing. Music. Baseball on four TVs. No mention of God or Death or hating Arabs. Awesome crowd including the brother of the Assembly Speaker -- and former MD in I-banking at Chase (Panama) before it became Banistmo -- who absolutely bent Kelso over on a sports trivia question during D-Back/SF Giant game: "Brandon Webb just set record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched. Who holds Giants record?" Kelso got clever and guessed Atlee Hammakker. El Senor offered 10/1 about Hammakker. Kelso bit. Whole crowd surrounding TV when correct answer "Carl Hubbell" came up. Howls sounding out across Paitilla when the old dude bested the young gun Kelso! We smile when we win. We pay when we lose. And fuck yeah Kelso enjoys being around folks who make shit happen. At least, these are capitalists, but then again Panama is a capitalist country. Any person in the street will know what the USD interest rate is. As Miss South Carolina has reminded all of us, Americans don't even know where the United States Of America are on the fucking globe. As for what economic system is used there, well, it's something. Something weird. But not any form of capitalism Kelso is familiar with. So, if anyone's going to call Kelso an elitist show-off, they're right, but they can still go piss up a rope.

And then there was ADMIRAL FALLON. OK, Democrats, you now have a fucking uniform -- NO, THE FUCKING UNIFORM -- to hide behind. Link and text follow.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39235

U.S.-IRAQ: Fallon Derided Petraeus, Opposed the Surge
By Gareth Porter*

WASHINGTON, Sep 12 (IPS) - In sharp contrast to the lionisation of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the U.S. Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.

Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and added, "I hate people like that", the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.

That extraordinarily contentious start of Fallon's mission to Baghdad led to more meetings marked by acute tension between the two commanders. Fallon went on develop his own alternative to Petraeus's recommendation for continued high levels of U.S. troops in Iraq during the summer.

The enmity between the two commanders became public knowledge when the Washington Post reported Sep. 9 on intense conflict within the administration over Iraq. The story quoted a senior official as saying that referring to "bad relations" between them is "the understatement of the century".

Fallon's derision toward Petraeus reflected both the CENTCOM commander's personal distaste for Petraeus's style of operating and their fundamental policy differences over Iraq, according to the sources.

The policy context of Fallon's extraordinarily abrasive treatment of his subordinate was Petraeus's agreement in February to serve as front man for the George W. Bush administration's effort to sell its policy of increasing U.S. troop strength in Iraq to Congress.

In a highly unusual political role for an officer who had not yet taken command of a war, Petraeus was installed in the office of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, in early February just before the Senate debated Bush's troop increase. According to a report in The Washington Post Feb. 7, senators were then approached on the floor and invited to go McConnell's office to hear Petraeus make the case for the surge policy.

Fallon was strongly opposed to Petraeus's role as pitch man for the surge policy in Iraq adopted by Bush in December as putting his own interests ahead of a sound military posture in the Middle East and Southwest Asia -- the area for which Fallon's CENTCOM is responsible.

The CENTCOM commander believed the United States should be withdrawing troops from Iraq urgently, largely because he saw greater dangers elsewhere in the region. "He is very focused on Pakistan," said a source familiar with Fallon's thinking, "and trying to maintain a difficult status quo with Iran."

By the time Fallon took command of CENTCOM in March, Pakistan had become the main safe haven for Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda to plan and carry out its worldwide operations, as well as being an extremely unstable state with both nuclear weapons and the world's largest population of Islamic extremists.

Plans for continued high troop levels in Iraq would leave no troops available for other contingencies in the region.

Fallon was reported by the New York Times to have been determined to achieve results "as soon as possible". The notion of a long war, in contrast, seemed to connote an extended conflict in which Iraq was but a chapter.

Fallon also expressed great scepticism about the basic assumption underlying the surge strategy, which was that it could pave the way for political reconciliation in Iraq. In the lead story Sep. 9, The Washington Post quoted a "senior administration official" as saying that Fallon had been "saying from Day One, 'This isn't working.' "

One of Fallon's first moves upon taking command of CENTCOM was to order his subordinates to avoid the term "long war" -- a phrase Bush and Secretary of Defence Robert M. Gates had used to describe the fight against terrorism.

Fallon was signaling his unhappiness with the policy of U.S. occupation of Iraq for an indeterminate period. Military sources explained that Fallon was concerned that the concept of a long war would alienate Middle East publics by suggesting that U.S. troops would remain in the region indefinitely.

During the summer, according to the Post Sep. 9 report, Fallon began to develop his own plans for redefine the U.S. mission in Iraq, including a plan for withdrawal of three-quarters of the U.S. troop strength by the end of 2009.

The conflict between Fallon and Petraeus over Iraq came to a head in early September. According to the Post story, Fallon expressed views on Iraq that were sharply at odds with those of Petraeus in a three-way conversation with Bush on Iraq the previous weekend. Petraeus argued for keeping as many troops in Iraq for as long as possible to cement any security progress, but Fallon argued that a strategic withdrawal from Iraq was necessary to have sufficient forces to deal with other potential threats in the region.

Fallon's presentation to Bush of the case against Petraeus's recommendation for keeping troop levels in Iraq at the highest possible level just before Petraeus was to go public with his recommendations was another sign that Petraeus's role as chief spokesperson for the surge policy has created a deep rift between him and the nation's highest military leaders. Bush presumably would not have chosen to invite an opponent of the surge policy to make such a presentation without lobbying by the top brass.

Fallon had a "visceral distaste" for what he regarded as Petraeus's sycophantic behaviour in general, which had deeper institutional roots, according to a military source familiar with his thinking.

Fallon is a veteran of 35 years in the Navy, operating in an institutional culture in which an officer is expected to make enemies in the process of advancement. "If you are Navy captain and don't have two or three enemies, you're not doing your job," says the source.

Fallon acquired a reputation for a willingness to stand up to powerful figures during his tenure as commander in chief of the Pacific Command from February 2005 to March 2007. He pushed hard for a conciliatory line toward and China, which put him in conflict with senior military and civilian officials with a vested interest in pointing to China as a future rival and threat.

He demonstrated his independence from the White House when he refused in February to go along with a proposal to send a third naval carrier task force to the Persian Gulf, as reported by IPS in May. Fallon questioned the military necessity for the move, which would have signaled to Iran a readiness to go to war. Fallon also privately vowed that there would be no war against Iran on his watch, implying that he would quit rather than accept such a policy.

A crucial element of Petraeus's path of advancement in the Army, on the other hand, was through serving as an aide to senior generals. He was assistant executive officer to the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Carl Vuono, and later executive assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Henry Shelton. His experience taught him that cultivating senior officers is the key to success.

The contrasting styles of the two men converged with their conflict over Iraq to produce one of the most intense clashes between U.S. military leaders in recent history.

*Gareth Porter is an historian and national security policy analyst. His latest book, "Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam", was published in June 2005.

First of all, what's an "IPS?" Why isn't this front page news everywhere in the USA? Second of all, Kelso has seen some other lively comments by Fallon to the effect of "there will be an attack on Iran over my dead body." This fellow is not some "disgruntled" ex-General lamenting getting the boot. THIS IS THE BOSS. This is the HEAD OF CENTCOM. The Godly Petraeus is THIS MAN'S SUBORDINATE. And even Petraeus had the good sense not to bite at Lieberman's entreaties for further escalation in Iraq and the beginning of nuclear holocaust with an assault on Iran.

We will, of course, admit to just a little anti-Bush and pro-Navy bias (sparing the bathos and mawkishness) around this site now and then but sweet baby Jesus! This fucking Fallon didn't even go to Annapolis. Commissioned all the way to the top. He's not John "Crazy Hands" McCain who's sort of the military analog to George W. Bush, as in being some miltary academy legacy, last in his class, who has ended up disgracing his service. Fallon is so much the cheese that The Nation's editors wondered upon his appointment whether he might not just be Bush's point man for war in Iran.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid better fucking get their acts together in a hurry. OK, they're conservative. They're cowards. They can ignore Leahy, Feingold, Waxman and certainly Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore with impunity if they like, but Fallon? No way. The presidential election is OVER. Hillary Clinton is the easiest sort of winner. That issue is only unsettled if Reid and Pelosi continue to party with Lieberman and company. Then, something they might not like could happen. Like...as in...well...let's say they "forget" about Fallon and...oh, who knows?...maybe he shows up at a Sheehan For Congress rally. Or backs Ron Paul for President. Or backs Edwards. Or comes in himself as a Democrat or a Republican. He could turn over the apple cart easily. In a million ways. And if Bush boots him on Saturday? Well, we know the MSM aren't real,real bright but Kelso can envision well-manicured fingers typing "Saturday Night Massacre" into Lexis/Nexis or whatever the fuck it's called just in time for the chat shows. Even Holy Joe Klein wouldn't miss that one. Kelso's got some terrible "self-hating" thoughts running around his twisted brain right now, but will keep his own counsel. In this holiest of holiest times.

We told you the answer to the trivia question was Carl Hubbell, si o no? Yes, but as we found out later, John Kruk and Duane Kuiper fucked up. Hubbell and Sal "The Barber" Maglie share the Giants record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched. A shout out to The Boy Mikey. For vat you turn your racquet, for vat?

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