FALLON. I'm unconvinced by the more alarmist interpretations of Admiral Fallon's shift to CENTCOM. SecDef Rumsfeld argued from the beginning of his tenure against the practice of assigning combatant commands to particular services. In this context, the shift can be understood as part of the effort to reduce territoriality and increase "jointness" among the services. Fallon has spent most of his career in the Pacific, but he's well respected in the service and at State. His work institutionalizing maritime cooperation between the East Asian navies has been very well regarded. I suspect that, rather than preparation for war with Iran, the move of Fallon from PACCOM to CENTCOM is intended to put the best person in the most critical theater.
--Robert Farley
