ARE ANY SANE GENERALS LEFT?

The Ant Man Exits: War Crime Accomplice Canned for Insufficient Groveling

Now, even the man whom a few hopeful souls deluded themselves was standing in the way is not standing in the way anymore. Do you get the message now? Certainly everyone in the Pentagon does.

Top U.S. Commander in Mideast to Retire Early (NYT)

As we noted here the other day, the magazine's view of Fallon as some kind of secret peacenik was laughable: after all, Fallon, as head of U.S. Central Command, has been directing Bush's murderous and illegal Terror War actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia for the past year. Multitudes of innocent people have died in the imperial satrapy under his command. And while it's true that he voiced some disagreement over the timing and tactics of the White House's bellicose approach to Iran, he also made his true opinion of the possibility of an assault on Iran abundantly clear, telling Esquire: "These guys are ants. When the time comes, you crush them."

But it seems that a minion's willingness to commit war crimes to further America's "full spectrum dominance" of the earth is not enough in eyes of the Dear Leader. There is now an elaborate system of ritual crawling and kowtowing that must be followed to the letter by imperial courtiers. A prime example of this has been the sight of "tough, independent-minded" Attorney General Michael Mukasey constantly twisting himself into circus-freak contortions in order to countenance the Leader's policies of torture and executive tyranny.

It's obvious that Fallon -- for all his skill and experience in exterminating the ants that infest those happy lands where the American elite seek to exercise their wholly benevolent sway -- never quite learned to simper sufficiently. We noted this possibility the other day:

...it could well be that Fallon will be fired in the end for not groveling obsequiously enough to the Leader, in the required Petraeus-Franks manner. Or indeed, that he might even resign rather than commit what he sees as the tactical error of crushing the Iranian ants at this particular time. But so what? If he quits, someone else who would be happy to do the stomping will be appointed in his place. If Bush decides to attack Iran, then Iran will be attacked. There is no one standing in the way. It's as simple, and terrifying, as that.

And now, even the man whom a few hopeful souls deluded themselves was standing in the way is not standing in the way anymore. Do you get the message now? Certainly everyone in the Pentagon does. If Bush wants war, there will be war. And not even the appearance of the slightest tactical divergence from the sovereign's desires will be tolerated.

Chris Floyd has been a writer and editor for more than 25 years, working in the United States, Great Britain and Russia for various newspapers, magazines, the U.S. government and Oxford University. Floyd co-founded the blog Empire Burlesque, and is also chief editor of Atlantic Free Press. He can be reached at cfloyd72@gmail.com.

This column is republished here with the permission of the author.