WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced he has recommended that Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus replace Gen. George Casey as commander of the Iraq war.
Casey, after nearly two years in Iraq, would become the next Army Chief of Staff, replacing Gen. Peter Schoomaker, who is retiring.
Adm. William Fallon, the current chief of U.S. Pacific Command, would replace Army Gen. John Abizaid as head of U.S. Central Command, who is also retiring.
Petraeus, designated to be the next commander of Multinational Forces-Iraq, will get a fourth star. He rose to prominence as the commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division, which swiftly established stability and began to carry out reconstruction projects in northern Iraq soon after the U.S. invasion. He and Lt. Gen. James Mattis of the U.S. Marine Corps are credited with the re-write of the military's new counter-insurgency manual.
Petraeus will "bring all the tools to enable Iraqi and coalition forces to create a stable and secure Iraq. He is the right man to lead our forces in Iraq at this critical juncture," Gates said is a written statement Friday.
Gates praised Fallon as "one of the best strategic thinkers in uniform today and his reputation for innovation is without peer. Subject to confirmation, he is exactly the right person for this most challenging assignment."
Fallon's expertise as a naval officer may be part of his draw as U.S. military attention increasingly focuses on Iran and its nuclear ambitions. Top U.S. officers say with the Army and Marine Corps tied down in Iraq, any military strike on Iran would likely be conducted from aircraft carriers. Naval forces would also play a key role in responding to what military analysts say is a likely Iranian gambit -- to sink a tanker in the Persian Gulf to block oil shipments.
"Admiral Fallon combines nearly four decades of military experience with a fresh perspective to the challenges America faces in the Central Command's area of operations," Gates stated.
Schoomaker was the retired head of U.S. Special Operations Command in 2003 when he agreed to come back on active duty to head the Army.
