Pentagon mulling reorganizing US military command in Iraq

WASHINGTON (AFP) Jan 07, 2004
High US defense officials are discussing a reorganization of the US military heirarchy in Iraq, currently headed by the chief of the Central Command (Centcom), General John Abizaid, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday.

Centcom is responsible for all US military operations over a vast area stretching from the Horn of Africa to Central Asia, including the Middle East, making Abizaid the head of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rumsfeld, asked at a Pentagon briefing whether a general would be named to supervise only military operations in Iraq as that country prepared for self-governance, said he and General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "have talked about" such a reorganization.

"But not in a fully structured way yet," he said, adding that Myers "is going to be coming back to me at some point in discussing that.

"It may very well be that we will want to make an adjustment and have some division of responsibility, as between Centcom, the relationship with the embassy, Office of Military Cooperation-type task as well as somebody that has the responsibility for the tactical, low-intensity war fighting that's taking place," Rumsfeld said.

"It's not been decided," he added.

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