British general in Iraq speaks out of turn

British military commander Major-General Christopher Ghika was pretty much unknown until now. He is a deputy commander (there are several of them) of US-led coalition forces for Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria. His title is deputy commander for strategy and information, the sort of job where you need to know your facts and get them right when you speak in public. General Ghika who started his army life with the Irish Guards was giving a briefing from Baghdad via a video conference system to members of the Pentagon Press Corps in Washington. He was asked if the threat from Iran and/or Iranian-backed militia in the region had risen. Remember, the White House was full of war-with-Iran rhetoric and warning of alarming intelligence that Iran was plotting to attack US interests in the Gulf. But this was the day before The New York Times story broke about the Pentagon offering the White House a plan to send 120,000 troops to the region to prepare for a confrontation with Iran. General Ghika very calmly informed the reporters that nothing had changed and all was fine. He said the threat level was the same as ever and there were no signs of Iranian proxy forces preparing to launch attacks. "Am I concerned about the danger? No, not really," he said, presumably to the reporters' astonishment. He said threat assessments were made regularly and he was qute satisfied with the way things were. Oops!! His comments must have caused mayhem in the Pentagon and at US Central Command forward headquarters in Qatar, and in Baghdad. At a stroke the general had undermined the message the White House had been putting out for days. The Pentagon had sent an aircraft carrier battle group and B-52 bombers to the region to try to deter the Iranians for heaven's sake. What was the British general thinking? Hohoho, I suspect General Ghika was just telling the truth as he saw it. There were no signs of Iranian-backed militia gathering with guns and artillery to attack the Americans in Baghdad or anywhere else. Presumably he saw the same intelligence everyone else had. He just interpreted it differently perhaps. Well, he knew he had misspoken within a few hours. Once the transcript had been sent around, Centcom issued an extraordinary rebuke, basically saying in a formal statement overnight that the British general was wrong and that what he had said ran counter to the intelligence which had set off alarm bells throughout the Trump administration. Centcom said the threat level HAD been raised, and later the State Department ordered all non-essential staff to leave the US embassy in Baghdad. The Centcom statement was an unprecedented scolding of such a senior coalition commander. I predict General Ghika won't be briefing Pentagon reporters again!