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[madwriter]

CENTCOM commander Admiral William Fallon has resigned. This is the fellow who was reported as saying that there would be no Iran attack on his watch, and that he would quit before such an attack.

There's been some downplaying of the resignation from DefSec Gates, but note Fallon's carefully-worded statement: "Although I don't believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command area of responsibility..." (Emphasis mine). You can share the same policy objectives while disagreeing with the means of achieving those objectives.

Also, while some on the Right have argued that the not-on-my-watch quote could've been an invention as Fallon never said it to the press, another article points out that his other well-known quotes, like the Bush policy towards Iran not being helpful, came during public interviews.

Yesterday the Dow had it's biggest jump in 5 1/2 years, but today the euphoria faded and it underwent a small dip. I'd get more excited about big jumps if they didn't seem so confined to major Federal Reserve announcements while the big drops apparently happen at the drop of a hat. And meanwhile the dollar is hitting record lows against the euro, pound, Swiss franc, and yen, while oil, gold, and silver are setting record highs.