--- title: Sean MacFarland by John McCain: TIME 100 description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301571/sean-macfarland-2016-time-100/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-20T18:41:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-02T23:13:39.192Z og:title: Sean MacFarland by John McCain: TIME 100 og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:url: https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301571/sean-macfarland-2016-time-100/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdece38f0928b8ecf/69888fd85f570f44b1b208ce/time-100-2016-sean-macfarland.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Sean MacFarland by John McCain: TIME 100 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sean MacFarland by John McCain: TIME 100 twitter:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdece38f0928b8ecf/69888fd85f570f44b1b208ce/time-100-2016-sean-macfarland.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 20, 2016 # Sean MacFarland by John McCain  Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the new commander general of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, attends a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015\. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, Pool) Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the new commander general of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, attends a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015\. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, Pool)Khalid Mohammed—AP Through 15 years of war, our nation has been blessed with leaders who stepped forward—leaders like David Petraeus, Stanley McChrystal, James Mattis and Ray Odierno. Sean MacFarland belongs in such distinguished company. I first met then Colonel MacFarland in Ramadi in December 2006\. Iraq was in the grip of a seemingly intractable sectarian conflict. But MacFarland had the courage to adapt and innovate. His support of the Anbar Awakening was the model for the successful surge strategy that broke the back of al-Qaeda in Iraq. I can think of no better commander than MacFarland to lead U.S. and coalition forces in destroying the Islamic State. I have had my disagreements with the President’s strategy. But as a witness to his leadership, I remain confident that if our war fighters are given the resources, authority and support they need, they can turn the tide of history once again. _McCain is the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301571/sean-macfarland-2016-time-100/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301571/sean-macfarland-2016-time-100/"},"headline":"Sean MacFarland","datePublished":"2016-04-20T18:41:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:13:39.192Z","description":"Taking the fight to ISIS","url":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301571/sean-macfarland-2016-time-100/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdece38f0928b8ecf/69888fd85f570f44b1b208ce/time-100-2016-sean-macfarland.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdece38f0928b8ecf/69888fd85f570f44b1b208ce/time-100-2016-sean-macfarland.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4301571/sean-macfarland-2016-time-100/","name":"Sean MacFarland"}}]}] ```