Mon, Mar 17, 2008 (2:05 a.m.)

President Bush has stated repeatedly since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that he will base his war-related decisions on feedback from his senior military commanders.

The resignation announcement last week by top Middle East commander Adm. William Fallon, however, raises the question of whether commanders have any incentive to provide sincere feedback.

Fallon, who will resign later this month, was assigned to head the U.S. Central Command a year ago. Since then he has expressed views contrasting with those of the president. He has said, for example, that troop withdrawals from Iraq should be proceeding more rapidly and that the Bush administration should be less belligerent and more diplomatic toward Iran.

The admiral’s resignation announcement came just days after an article in Esquire magazine focused on his Iran views.

“Just as Fallon took over Centcom (Central Command) last spring, the White House was putting itself on a war footing with Iran,” wrote the author, Thomas P.M. Barnett, a Scripps Howard News Service columnist and a former Naval War College professor. “Fallon began to calmly push back against what he saw as an ill-advised action.”

Barnett quoted “well-placed observers” as saying “that it will come as no surprise if Fallon is relieved of his command ... in favor of a commander the White House considers to be more pliable.”

The White House has denied that it suppresses dissent and Defense Secretary Robert Gates has assured the country that Fallon’s departure does not foreshadow war with Iran. Even Fallon said he was resigning only because a “perception” had arisen that he disagrees with Bush’s policies.

The fact remains, however, that a top military commander will be stepping down after expressing views different from those of the White House. No president must ever cede control over the military, obviously, but we wish Bush and Gates could have worked out a way to keep the experienced and thoughtful Fallon. If any presidential administration needed to hear straight talk and dissenting opinions, it’s this one.