Bush will replace top Iraq commanders

This is excellent news, and I'll explain why below. Story from the AP/Yahoo:

Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, and Gen. George Casey, the chief general in Iraq, are both expected to leave their jobs in coming weeks.

The defense official, who insisted on anonymity because formal announcements are still pending, said that Bush wants to replace Abizaid with Adm. William Fallon, the top U.S. commander in the Pacific and that Casey's replacement would be Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, who headed the effort to train Iraqi security forces.

This is a good thing because there's nothing that can breathe new life in a floundering conflict than a change of command at the top. Examples from history include Lincoln trading McClellan (eventually) for Grant, Ike replacing Frendendall with Patton, and Creighton Abrams taking command in Vietnam from disgraced Gen. Westmoreland. During the North African War in WW 2, Churchill replaced numerous top British commanders before he found a real battlefield commander with Montgomery. This is not a certainty that the war effort will get better, but at least now there is greater hope for the coming year.

Also, I mentioned a need for change of command earlier, and here.

I found an interesting article on General Petraeus from 2005 US News:

Petraeus is one of the most fascinating people in the United States Army. With a Ph.D. from Princeton University, he is often referred to as the military's warrior-scholar...From May 2004 until last September, Petraeus handled Iraq's toughest mission, re-creating its Army and police forces. At the security command, he inherited a mess. The Coalition Provisional Authority had dismissed the old army, forcing a new one to be built from scratch. Few of the existing Iraqi battalions were properly equipped. The battalions that had been deployed melted away in the face of the insurgency.
The jury is out on how successful Petraeus's efforts have been. But today, more than 197,000 Iraqi soldiers have been sent through basic training and equipped with rifles, body armor, and, in many cases, vehicles. With help from American units, Iraqi forces are beginning to execute their own missions.

And this on Admiral "Fox" Fallon from a 2002 Honolulu Advertiser story:

When President Bush needed an envoy to handle a delicate mission in 2001 after an American submarine collided with a Japanese fishing vessel, he chose Adm. William "Fox" Fallon...As vice chief of naval operations, Fallon led a diplomatic mission to Japan in the first year of Bush's presidency on behalf of the U.S. government. His assignment from Bush: Apologize after the USS Greeneville, based in Pearl Harbor, slammed into the Japanese vessel Ehime Maru, nine miles off Diamond Head. Nine men and youths on the ship were killed.
The emotional aftermath in Japan required a delicate touch, and Fallon earned praise for the way he handled the job.

Well, now he's likely getting the toughest job of his career. The fate of America's future role in the War on Terror now rest on these two soldiers. God speed to both!

More: ABC News writes: Fallon, who is in the Navy, is currently head of Pacific Command; he will be overseeing two ground wars, so the appointment is highly unusual.

Unusual but not unprecedented. Remember Admiral Halsey at Guadalcanal?