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Common Odierno favored the speedy deployment of about 20,000 further troops — the surge, because it was known as — to assist quell the insurgency.
The troop reinforcement proposal cut up the navy and was opposed by Protection Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. However Vice President Dick Cheney and the nationwide safety adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, backed it, as did Gen. Jack Keane, a former Military vice chief of workers who had the ear of influential White Home officers.
By January 2007, President George W. Bush had authorized the troop improve, fired Mr. Rumsfeld, and tapped Gen. David H. Petraeus as the brand new high commander in Iraq to hold out the brand new technique, with Common Odierno, the No. 2 common in Iraq, because the plan’s operational chief.
“Ray Odierno — the Huge O to his many admirers, and I’m amongst them — was a very extraordinary chief, soldier, and human being,” Common Petraeus stated in an e mail on Saturday.
The surge was deemed successful on the time, because it dramatically lowered the sectarian killings and the war-shocked nation slowly began to stabilize. However navy historians debate the technique’s long-term effectiveness.
Common Odierno acquired his fourth star, changing into a full common, in 2008, the yr he changed Common Petraeus as chief commander of the multinational power in Iraq.
The warfare instantly affected Common Odierno’s household. His son, Anthony Odierno, a West Level graduate like his father, served as an infantry platoon chief with the First Cavalry Division in Baghdad. His automobile was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade on Aug. 21, 2004, and he misplaced his left arm.
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