The appointment of Lebanese-American General John Abizaid to head up the US military Central Command (Centcom) has stirred a sense of pride back in his ancestral home of Lebanon."As a Lebanese, I am proud that one of my compatriots should hold such a post," a cousin, Hikmat Abizaid, who served for 30 years as spokesman for the Lebanese cabinet before retiring, told AFP.
"General Abizaid's appointment to this key post, along with numerous other Americans of Lebanese origin in various US institutions, could form the core of a Lebanese lobby in the US," added cabinet minister who asked not to be named.
Hikmat Abizaid said he does not know the new Centcom commander personally, but the family has sent out an invitation for the general to visit Lebanon.
A part of the Christian family emigrated to the United States from Mlikh village in the Jezzine region of southern Lebanon in 1915 during World War I to escape famine, he said.
The retired official said he hoped the general would "not forget his Lebanese and Arab roots".
Abizaid, a Middle East expert fluent in Arabic, replaced Tommy Franks on Monday as military commander of US forces in a vast region that includes Iraq and Afghanistan.
He will oversee troops in a region that encompasses 25 countries in the Middle East and southwest Asia, an area spanning 3,100 mileskilometers) east to west and 3,600 miles (5,750 kilometers) north to south.
The United States has about 250,000 troops in the region, including 145,000 in Iraq, another 9,000 in Afghanistan and about 1,500 in the Horn of Africa.
Abizaid, a 1973 graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, is an expert in Arabic affairs with a master's degree in Middle Eastern studies from Harvard University.
From 1978 to 1980, Abizaid took Arabic studies and history at Amman university and he was a member of a UN observers' mission in Lebanon.
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