What sealed Fallon’s doom?

It's good news that Adm. William Fallon is retiring as the U.S. commander in the Middle East, said Max Boot in the Los Angeles Times, because his "very public assurances that America has no plans to use force against Iran embolden the mullahs."

What happened

Adm. William J. Fallon, whose push for diplomacy clashed with Bush administration policy on Iran, is retiring early, the Pentagon said Tuesday. Fallon, the U.S. military commander in the Middle East, also endorsed faster troop withdrawals from Iraq, and suggested the U.S. had let its military mission in Afghanistan waver. Fallon said in a statement released by his office that “recent press reports suggesting a disconnect between my views and the president’s policy objectives have become a distraction at a critical time and hamper efforts” across his region. (The New York Times, free registration)

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