Andrew Bacevich, a professor of international relations at Boston University, said he does not foresee significant changes in US policy toward Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or Pakistan as a result of Fallon's departure.
"Those who believe that Fallon was the only person preventing the administration from going to war against Iran are wrong, in my view," Bacevich wrote in an e-mail exchange. "When Secretary Gates describes the prospect of such a war as 'ridiculous,' we should take him at his word."
The job of Central Command commander is part war fighter, part strategist and part diplomat. The commander answers to the secretary of defense and is responsible for US military relations with countries stretching from the Horn of Africa, through the Middle East and across Central Asia. That region is at the center of the administration's war on terrorism.
In addition to his years in Iraq, Dempsey headed a US program in Saudi Arabia to modernize the kingdom's National Guard, which is an elite force designed to protect the royal family, from September 2001 to June 2003.
Dempsey graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point and attended the National War College in 1995-1996.
