Word: mullens
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, had been hearing warnings from the combat zones ever since the April 23 announcement of the agreement. In weekly video conferences and private letters, top commanders in the region expressed grave concerns over the possible impact of the photographs. Both Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki raised similar doubts over the decision, a senior Pentagon official says...
...think the answer is no. But what Israel and few others talk about, or not convincingly at least, is the other very risky unknown about such a strike: how exactly Iran would respond to it. Speculating a few weeks ago, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen told the Wall Street Journal that Iran's ability to strike back "has not maxed out at all." Mullen doesn't offer specifics but leaves the impression that Iran will do what it has done in the past: small-scale attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Hizballah...
...much wheel-spinning, even as the Taliban extended its reach, and that there was not enough of the "new thinking" as demanded by Gates. "It's time for new leadership and fresh eyes," Gates said, refusing to elaborate. He noted that Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen and General David Petraeus, who as chief of U.S. Central Command oversees the Afghanistan war, both endorsed the move. Officers typically serve about 24 months in the slot, meaning McKiernan served less than half his expected tour...
...everyone welcomed the change, however. Some viewed McKiernan's firing as unfair, noting that he had inherited command of an under-resourced Afghan theater that had been a secondary priority to Iraq. "In Afghanistan, we do what we can," Mullen himself said in December 2007. "In Iraq, we do what we must." And while McKiernan was given his Afghanistan command during the Bush Administration, it was Gates who appointed him - at Mullen's recommendation...
...hierarchy to give them what they need. He was stunned by the military's foot-dragging when he ordered additional armored vehicles and drone aircraft to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Even though McKiernan's dismissal had been in the works prior to Gates' trip to Afghanistan last week (Mullen warned McKiernan two weeks ago that it was coming), Gates was incensed by some of what he witnessed during that visit. Several troops complained that they lacked basic gear after arriving in Afghanistan. "It is a considerable concern to me," he said on May 7, brushing off a suggestion that...