John Abizaid |
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John Philip Abizaid (born 1 April 1951; Arabic: جون فيليب أبي زيد) is a retired General in the United States Army and former Commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), overseeing American military operations in a 27-country region, from the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, to South and Central Asia, covering much of the Middle East. CENTCOM oversees 250,000 US troops. Abizaid succeeded General Tommy Franks as Commander, USCENTCOM, on 7 July 2003, and was also elevated to the rank of 4-star general the same week. He was succeeded by Admiral William J. Fallon on 16 March 2007.
General Abizaid retired from the military on 1 May 2007 after 34 years of service. As of 2007, Abizaid is employed as a fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. General Abizaid assumed the Distinguished Chair of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point in December 2007. Abizaid was appointed to the board of directors of RPM International on January 24, 2008. In 2008 he was selected as a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College.
Abizaid was born in Coleville, California, to a Lebanese-American father and an American mother. He is fluent in Arabic, and was the most senior U.S. military officer of direct Arab descent. He was raised mostly by his widowed father, who retired from the United States Navy as a Chief Petty Officer. Abizaid is married and has three children, one of whom serves in the United States Army as a Military Police officer. He studied Arabic in Jordan, where he received special forces training.