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ニューヨークタイムズ最新大見出し記事。
イラク米軍司令官に軍のナンバー2、4星上級将軍が交代の異変
昇進する予定の前任サンチェス中将の行く先が決まらずは、様々な解釈あり、アブグレイブ問題は当然ある。方針の変更は、この数日間の出来事。
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/25/politics/25SANC.html?th
May 25, 2004
No. 2 Army General to Move In as Top U.S. Commander in Iraq
By ERIC SCHMITT and THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON, May 24 -- The top American officer in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, will leave his command this summer, to be replaced by the Army's second-ranking general, senior Pentagon officials said Monday. The change is part of an overhaul of the American command structure in Iraq that will put a higher-ranking officer in charge.
Pentagon officials said that replacing General Sanchez with the Army vice chief of staff, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., in no way reflected on General Sanchez's handling of the widening prisoner-abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison, outside of Baghdad, which was under his authority.
While the move may not have come purely as a result of Abu Ghraib, General Sanchez has been under pressure recently in Iraq, especially as the insurgency has posed increasing military challenges in the central town of Falluja and in several southern towns.
His intended new assignment, which was to lead the United States Southern Command in Miami, may now have been given to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's senior military assistant, Lt. Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, leaving it unclear where General Sanchez will be assigned, one defense official said. Other officials said, however, that General Sanchez might not yet have lost that prize.
Some lawmakers have criticized General Sanchez, among other top officers, for failing to give Congress an early warning about politically explosive photographs of American military police officers abusing Iraqi prisoners that were turned over to military investigators in January.
A spokesman for General Sanchez said the general "stands by his testimony before Congressional committees" that he did not learn of the abuses until January, months after they began. But sending General Craddock to Iraq could have given critics of Secretary Rumsfeld a target of convenience.
Generals Sanchez and Craddock are both three-star officers who would have needed Senate approval for promotion to a higher rank, and either might have faced a lengthy confirmation process. General Casey is already a four-star officer, and presumably could be installed in the new position more rapidly.
Pentagon officials noted that General Sanchez had spent more than a year in command in Iraq, and it was natural for him to leave sometime soon after the transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government on June 30.
"It would be appropriate for him to be leaving in the next couple of months," said a senior Defense Department official. "He's been there longer than any other commander."
General Casey would be a logical and noncontroversial replacement for General Sanchez. A career infantryman and former commander of the First Armored Division who once directed the military's Joint Staff, General Casey is known as a forceful officer who is highly respected by Mr. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Casey holds a master's degree in international relations from Denver University.
Under a new American military command structure drawn up for the post-June 30 political setting, a four-star officer will have overall responsibility but will focus on political and reconstruction issues with the designated American ambassador, John D. Negroponte. A three-star officer, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, will oversee daily military operations.
The changes come during a larger reshuffling of top generals and admirals that typically happens every summer as the Pentagon carries out a regular rotation of its more senior commanders worldwide.
But the paths for Generals Sanchez and Casey have recently taken some sharp curves and dips.
For several weeks, senior military and Pentagon officials said, a leading plan was to promote General Sanchez to four-star rank, making him the Army's senior-ranking Hispanic officer and rewarding his work in Iraq by giving him the Southern Command, which has responsibility for most of Latin America.
Under that plan, officials said, General Craddock would have been awarded a fourth star, and taken General Sanchez's place in Baghdad as head of the new Multinational Force Iraq, after June 30.
But something happened in the past few days to derail that plan. Even as the military's top worldwide commanders met in Washington for a two-day conference, defense officials would not say Monday night what caused the plan to change.
Under a new plan, General Craddock would move to the Southern Command, opening the spot for General Casey in Iraq, one defense official said.
"Casey is a more forceful type than Craddock," said the defense official, who suggested that the last-minute changes may have been a result of Mr. Rumsfeld and his top advisers deciding they needed "a different personality."
"More importantly," said the official, "where is Sanchez going, because Craddock is going to Southcom instead, leaves no seats when the music stops."
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