Hunter calls for more Iraq involvement by famed officers

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/07/hunter-calls-more-iraq-involvement-famed-officers

Hunter calls for more Iraq involvement by famed officers
By Dan Lamothe
The Washington Post
© July 2, 2014

WASHINGTON

The U.S. military last week selected Army Maj. Gen. Dana Pittard to lead U.S. operations in Iraq as security there continues to deteriorate. As the deputy commanding general of the Army's force based in nearby Kuwait, he was seen as a logical choice; Pittard had previously deployed to Iraq both as a brigade commander in the early part of the war and as a brigadier general who oversaw U.S. adviser teams there in 2006 and 2007.

There's a call for more involvement by some of the Iraq War's most famous U.S. generals, though. U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R.-California, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday, saying he should bring up for re-assignment a number of officers who had key roles in Iraq in 2007 and 2008, as the effects of the U.S. surge and the Anbar Awakening began to take hold and violence there waned. Hunter's suggestion followed a fiery call Sen. John McCain, R.-Arizonia, made June 13 for President Barack Obama to fire his entire national security team and consult with retired Gen. David Petraeus, the architect of the surge.

Hunter says Petraeus should serve as a liaison to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But he also focuses on lower levels of command, highlighting individuals who aren't nearly as famous as Petraeus or Marine Gen. James Mattis, who retired last year as perhaps the most popular general of his generation. The others he named include:

Marine Gen. John Kelly: Hunter cites the trust Kelly built with tribal leaders in Iraq's western Anbar province as potentially helpful now. Kelly, now the four-star commander of U.S. Southern Command, was the two-star commander of Multinational Forces-West in Iraq from February 2008 to February 2009. He has been promoted twice since, and was seen as a possible candidate to become the next commandant of the Marine Corps before Gen. Joseph Dunford was nominated for the job.