John Abizaid
John Abizaid
John Philip Abizaidis a retired United States Army general and former U.S. Central Commandcommander, overseeing American military operations in a 27-country region, from the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, to South and Central Asia, covering much of the Middle East. CENTCOM oversees 250,000 US troops. Abizaid succeeded General Tommy Franks as Commander, USCENTCOM, on July 7, 2003, and was also elevated to the rank of four-star general the same week. He was succeeded by Admiral William J. Fallon on...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSoldier
Date of Birth1 April 1951
CountryUnited States of America
The international community needs to continue to help and you can certainly count on the United States to continue to help as well,
It's also natural in that part of the world to blame what people view as the... as the most important authority in the region, and that currently is the United States of America.
Why (anyone) would want to move against us in an overt manner that would cause us to use our air or naval power against them would be beyond me... We can generate more military power per square inch than anybody else on Earth, and everybody knows it... If you ever even contemplate our nuclear capability, it should give everybody the clear understanding that there is no power that can match the United States militarily,
I do think there is a general lack of understanding in the United States as to how it's going,
The power to prevent violence is a power that no police force seems to have anywhere in the United States.
The United States is the most powerful nation on Earth and it just can't walk away from the Middle East and central Asia and the Horn of Africa.
Clearly the Secretary of Defense, my boss, would like nothing better than to get Osama bin Laden and to get... to ensure the complete defeat of al-Qaida, because we know that al-Qaida is planning operations against the United States even as we speak here.
You don't build a new power plant in the United States overnight. It takes years to build.
The attacks against coalition forces have definitely gone down. Our attacks against the enemy have gone up. Attacks against civilians over time has gone up,
I know you have a lot of work ahead of you. I will continue to work with you all the way.
We certainly will take whatever military action we need to defend ourselves and to prevent the enemy from taking advantage there,
There is always a possibility that things could deteriorate,
What I've asked for is essentially to have a strong mobile combat arms capability, ... That's probably about two brigades worth of combat power, if not more.
We have decided to make sure that we're cautious about how we're operating, and I have nothing to say further than that,