Fox Fallon

The Admiral impresses me immensely. The expression bigger than life occurs to me. A military man, a warrior, this Fox grew into an intellectual giant. His sense of strategy is extraordinary - yes, that's the right word: not ordinary.

A story appearing in the current (11 March 2008) issue of Esquire magazine led to Fallon being forced to resign from his post as United States Central Command chief. It was, so it seems, the proverbial last straw.

"There are the stories of his wilder days as a young officer, not the partying stuff but more the variety of rules bent to the breaking point, and he's been known as anything but a dove in his various commands, which makes his later roles as champion for engagement with both China and Iran all the more strange."

An aviator, a VietNam veteran, he developed the sense of understanding that engaging China is important. How many other militaries think that way? Look at John McCain: fight, confront. Yes, he's running for President, and is a Republican, so he needs to strike the right bellicosity, but I am not convinced he has the sort of insight that Fallon has. Cheney-Bush? Plu-eez. Those two have, together, insufficient sense of strategy to play a game of chess.

Fallon is no wooly-headed strategist; he has fought, unlike the vast majority of his neoconservative critics -- including our President and VicePresident, who both dodged the draft and the VietNam War.

"Fallon is in no hurry to call Iran's hand on the nuclear question. He is as patient as the White House is impatient, as methodical as President Bush is mercurial, and simply has, as one aide put it, "other bright ideas about the region." Fallon is even more direct: In a part of the world with "five or six pots boiling over, our nation can't afford to be mesmerized by one problem."

And if it comes to war?

"Get serious," the admiral says. "These guys are ants. When the time comes, you crush them.""

After his long years in the service, along with what is obviously a superior intelligence, he developed a strategic understanding of the world as we know it.

Fallon explains his approach to Iran the same way he explains why he doesn't make Al Qaeda the focus of his regional strategy as Centcom's commander: "What's the best and most effective way to combat Al Qaeda? We tend to make too much or too little a deal about it. I want a more even keel. I come from the school of 'walk softly and carry a big stick.'"