|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arab-American rises in ranks
From Barbara Starr
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An Arab-American is moving into the highest ranks of the U.S. military to a position that may include coordinating operations in a war with Iraq. Senior U.S. defense officials tell CNN that Army Lt. Gen. John Abizaid is expected to be named deputy to Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of the U.S. Central Command, which would run a war on Iraq. He's likely to be named early in the new year. Officials say Abizaid will fill a job created especially for him, focusing on becoming the point man for operations inside Iraq and U.S. military relations with other Arab nations. Abizaid is fluent in Arabic and is the most senior military officer of direct Arab descent. He was born in the United States to a Lebanese-American family. Sources agree he will have a unique capability to put an Arab-American face on the U.S. military from the highest levels. Abizaid currently serves as director of the Joint Staff. And as a three-star senior general, he controls much of the paper flow around the Pentagon and between the Pentagon and worldwide military commands. Abizaid is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point as well as the Armed Forces Staff College and Stanford University. He also attended Stanford University and the University of Amman in Jordan. He also has trained as a paratrooper and an Army Ranger; serving in the 82nd Airborne Division and the First Armored Division. Abizaid has extensive background in military operations, particularly in areas of civilian Muslim populations. He served with military operations in northern Iraq in the 1990s in protection of the Kurds, as well as in Bosnia and Kosovo. Officials say Abizaid is not being groomed to head any potential post-war military occupation force inside Iraq, but if it comes to war, they agree he is being positioned to become a vital U.S. military link to the Arab world. Abizaid's career has also drawn attention from Hollywood. The Washington Post recently reported that Abizaid is the only officer on active duty who has had an episode in his career recreated on film with Clint Eastwood playing his role. The Post reported that while Abizaid was leading a Ranger company during the 1983 invasion of Grenada, "Abizaid ordered one of his sergeants to commandeer a bulldozer and drive it like a tank toward a Cuban position while Abizaid and other troops advanced behind it." That moment was recreated in Eastwood's 1986 movie "Heartbreak Ridge," although it was part of the actor's fictional Marine Reconnaissance unit.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
