An enduring image of Gen. John Abizaid is of him bounding from an armored Humvee in one of Baghdad's toughest neighborhoods last summer and conversing with shopkeepers and imams who were dumbfounded to encounter a four-star general chatting with them in Arabic.
Abizaid, who retires today as Centcom commander, brought something special to the job. He was an Arab American who understood the region's culture and spoke its language. But more than that, he was an intellectual who thought more deeply about the strategic issues involved in what he liked to call the "long war" than almost anyone else in the U.S. government.
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