"I fully support the President's decision to nominate Gen. Marty Dempsey and Adm. Sandy Winnefeld for the positions of Chairman and Vice Chairman, respectively, of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"Both men are extraordinary leaders, who will provide the Secretary of Defense and the President not only their best military advice, but also the great benefit of their decades of military experience and their command in combat operations.
"I know, too, that they will represent faithfully and stridently the 2.2 million men and women in uniform, as well as their families.
"In that same vein, I applaud the selection of Gen. Ray Odierno to succeed Gen. Dempsey as Army Chief of Staff. Like Marty, Ray is a combat-proven officer who made a real difference in Iraq, and who will lead the Army with strength and with passion as we complete our mission there and begin to transition in Afghanistan."
"I enthusiastically support President Obama's choices to fill these key military leadership positions.
"On a personal note, I have enjoyed working with Admiral Mullen and General Cartwright and benefited greatly from their wise counsel. All Americans owe these two fine officers and their families a debt of gratitude, and I look forward to paying fuller tribute to their accomplishments at the appropriate time."
Statement by WOTN on nominations:
General Odierno (nominee for Army Chief of Staff) certainly has the most combat experience of the three nominees. We send our sincere best wishes to all and hope they will be blessed with good judgement and that their advice will be heeded by the politicians who appointed them, as they oversee the cuts of 49,000 personnel and $100 Billion in the budget, while fighting 3 wars.
I have reservations about the timing and selection process that sends General Petraeus into military retirement and announces these nominations on Memorial Day. While General Petraeus has my full confidence to lead the CIA, I believe his experience would best serve this Nation as the Joint Chief of Staff. Moreover, these moves see a lack of continuity in leadership by the completeness of change in leadership, at a critical time, when the War (not just a Contingency Operation) in Afghanistan is turning around.
The new leadership does not have time to complete its assessment before the anticipated political call for a drawdown of Troops in theater, nor to address the questions raised by company level leaders on the repeal of DADT, before the anticipated "certification" by political appointees that the military is "ready" for a change it has not figured out how to implement.
And I cannot help but notice that ADM Mullen has not stated his support as strongly for General Odierno as he has the other two nominees. This would have been less apparent had he chosen to make two statements, but "in the same vein, I applaud" does not bear the same weight as "fully endorse," and "extraordinairy leaders."
Note: Since the "surge in Afghanistan" was announced, the political leadership has continously stated it was calling for a drawdown "based on conditions on the ground" a year and a half before the date it was calling for it, a year before the "surge troops" arrived, and without knowing that the current successes would secure some parts of the country, while adding a 3rd "contingency operation" in Libya, seeing an Al-Qaeda uprising in Yemen, and not having secured the full country of Afghanistan, while across the border in Pakistan sees a violent turn against the United States over the implementation of increased UAV strikes, as promised (and denied) by candidate Obama.
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