What ever became of Gen. Jay Garner?

[Encinitas]

Sorry if this is old news, but I was out of the country for two weeks and when I came back the administrator of Iraq had been replaced. Did he do something wrong? Politics? Health reasons? Violate the dress code? What's the straight dope?

[MC Master of Ceremonies]

It appears he was fired:

f the decision to hire an aging, retired 3-star General Jay Garner as the czar of Iraq was not a bad decision, why is he being phased out? Further evidence that something is very wrong at the top, Rumsfeld just fired Secretary of the Army Tom White. White is well known throughout the active, reserve and retired army as a terrific leader -- the smartest, most competent "in touch" Army secretary the Army has ever had. White is a retired Army Brigadier General with a strong business background. His firing makes no sense, particularly after one of the most extraordinary victories in military history.

http://www.daily-journal.com/content/?id=27547

[NBIT33]

Wow, what a rediculous news source.

When Gen Garner took the Iraq job, it was only to be for 3 months, perhaps shorter.

"The appointment of someone like Bremer had been planned all along, Garner said, and Garner himself was always intended to be in Iraq temporarily. "I'll stay a while. There's got to be a good handoff," he said."

cite:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030505/wl_nm/iraq_garner_dc_9


hth,
Nick

[Marley23]

White was fired a LONG time ago, actually, for stock-related misdeeds. But no replacement was named until recently, so he was still on the job.
I have seen some classify Bremer's appointment as a victory for Colin Powell and the State Dept. (over Rummy and the Pentagon). But it's true that Garner was not supposed to be a permanent fixture. This may have come a bit sooner than planned, though.

[Encinitas]

Hmmmm...
Poking around I came across this article in Time (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030526-452803,00.html) magazine:
Bremer's predecessor, retired Lieut. General Jay Garner, fared so poorly from the start that one of his own underlings in Iraq, career diplomat Barbara Bodine, sounded the alarm. She dashed off scathing reports to colleagues back in Washington warning that he was in danger of losing the peace, according to officials at the State Department and the Baghdad-based Office of Humanitarian and Reconstruction Assistance (OHRA). (Bodine declined to comment for this article.) The inability of Garner to get his arms around Baghdad's troubles not only cost him his job but has also lost the U.S. considerable goodwill among the Iraqi population, damaged American credibility abroad and raised the prospect of prolonged turmoil in the country.
So it appears that Gen. Garner got the boot for incompetence.