The New Chairman: Admiral Mullen

Peter Pace is out as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Admiral Mullen is in, thereby completing the purge of the Rumsfeld wing of the DoD.

From all accounts, it looks like we'll get a serious change of tone and priority from the new command:

In sharp contrast to the lionisation of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the U.S. Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.

Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and added, "I hate people like that", the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.

That extraordinarily contentious start of Fallon's mission to Baghdad led to more meetings marked by acute tension between the two commanders. Fallon went on develop his own alternative to Petraeus's recommendation for continued high levels of U.S. troops in Iraq during the summer.

The enmity between the two commanders became public knowledge when the Washington Post reported Sep. 9 on intense conflict within the administration over Iraq. The story quoted a senior official as saying that referring to "bad relations" between them is "the understatement of the century".

Wow. It sure makes "Betrayus" look like weak tea.

Given that, it shouldn't have been a surprise that, although General Petraeus gave his report just weeks ago, Admiral Mullen felt the need to go to Iraq to "get his own view" on the conflict.

There are other changes in the works:

Seems the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Michael Mullen, has banned the use of the phrase "Global War on Terror" (GWOT) and has prohibited using it "in any future correspondence," according to a Sept. 27 e-mail from a Mullen aide.

Is he taking orders from the Edwards campaign? Doesn't he know that makes Osama jump around his little cave in glee?