John Valceanu

General, U.S. Army; Commander, U.S. Central Command
Location MacDill AFB, FL
Age 55
GSAS A.M. 1981

The embodiment of the post-Vietnam generation of military commanders, Abizaid succeeded Tommy Franks in 2003 as head of Centcom, which directs the U.S. military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. A four-star general affectionately known to his West Point classmates as the “Mad Arab,” the Lebanese-American Abizaid is fluent in Arabic and served in a variety of combat and staff positions en route to becoming the Army’s highest-ranking officer of Arab descent. After his 2003 appointment as deputy commander of Centcom, his Harvard mentor, Nadav Safran, told the Boston Globe: “I slept better that night, knowing that he is where he is.” In 2005, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius called Abizaid “probably the strongest strategic thinker in the Army.” He’ll need every scrap of that acumen to guide his undermanned forces if the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate.

However… Even top commanders, including Abizaid, are now using the phrase “civil war” to describe likely outcomes in Iraq.

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