General Peter Pace Retires as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

Pace retires
WASHINGTON (AP)
6/7/07

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Friday he has recommended Adm. Mike Mullen, currently chief of naval operations, to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Gates said that Mullen has the "vision strategic insight and integrity to lead America's armed forces."

If formally appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate, Mullen would replace Marine Gen. Peter Pace as the nation's top military officer.

Pace has been in his post for six years -- a period that covers the Iraq war. Gates said that until recently, he had intended to renominate the Marine general for another two years.

But he said that after consulting with senators in both parties, he had concluded that "the focus of his confirmation process would have been on the past and not on the future."

Peter Pace is Out. Good.
Peter Pace is Out. Good.
by Jon Soltz
6/8/07

General Peter Pace was let go today as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. That's a good thing. But the administration has tolerated his poor performance for too long, and dismissed him fearing his anticipated reconfirmation hearing would be ugly.

If the administration was hoping to avoid answering the tough questions, by avoiding a reconfirmation hearing for Pace, they can forget it.

General Pace grossly overstepped his bounds and poorly represented the military with his political actions and misguided statements.

The straw that broke the camel's back, for us, was his defense of a convicted felon, Scooter Libby, when it was entirely improper for him to do so, as a top leader in the military, who must remain non-partisan.

General Pace has made a number of other missteps that reflected poorly on the military as of late:

On Memorial Day, Pace seemed to defend the President's failed policy by deliberating fudging American death numbers from Iraq to sound not as high as they really are.

On March 11, Pace chose to publicly air his personal views on homosexuality, calling the lifestyle "immoral," and said that was justification for the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gays openly serving.

In today's press conference announcing the move, Secretary of Defense Gates maintained that one of the reasons for letting Pace go was to avoid a contentious reconfirmation hearing. They won't avoid the tough questions, if VoteVets.org has anything to do with it.

This president has to, and will, be held accountable. It doesn't matter how many people they let go. Congress has a job to do, and we expect that they will do it. We'll be there to be sure they do.

General "Sacrificed" to Clear Decks on Iraq
General "Sacrificed" to Clear Decks on Iraq
By Suzanne Goldenberg
The Guardian UK
Saturday 09 June 2007

Chairman of joint chiefs of staff to stand down. Senate hearings would have been controversial.

The Bush administration yesterday attempted to wipe the slate clean on the Iraq war and chart a new way forward with the surprise announcement that it was replacing General Peter Pace as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

The defence chief, Robert Gates, said he had reluctantly decided on the reshuffle - despite his initial support for Gen Pace - to avoid a "divisive ordeal" at the Senate which would have had to approve an extension of the general's term.

"The focus of this confirmation process would have been on the past rather than on the future," Mr Gates told the press conference. "There was a very real prospect that the process would be quite contentious."

He said he had nominated Admiral Mike Mullen, who is currently chief of naval operations, to replace Gen Pace. In another house cleaning move, the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Edmund Gambastiani, also announced his retirement yesterday.

A career marine, Gen Pace has been at the centre of military decision-making by the Bush administration on Afghanistan and Iraq for the last six years. As vice chairman and then chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, he was a key architect of the 2003 invasion to remove Saddam Hussein, as well as the post-war planning.

The decision not to fight for Gen Pace was seen as a sign of the administration's eagerness to open a new chapter in the Iraq war, and so help rebuild wavering Republican support for the troops increase. Mr Gates denied any doubts about Gen Pace's performance. "I am disappointed that the circumstances make this kind of decision necessary," Mr Gates told reporters. "I wish that were not the case."

The secretary said the political figures he had conferred with were unanimous in their respect for Gen Pace - and unanimous in their feeling that a change in Pentagon leadership was needed.

It was also seen as an extraordinary retreat for an administration which had earlier prided itself on its resolve in pursuing policy matters, as well as loyalty to personnel. Mr Gates told the press conference that conversations in recent weeks with both Republican and Democratic senators had convinced him that a confirmation process would have shone the spotlight on the prosecution of the war.

That spectacle could have proved devastating at a time when the White House is fighting hard to maintain Republican support for additional troops in Iraq. Republican leaders have warned the White House repeatedly that they need to see concrete results from the surge by September if they are to continue to justify their support to a war-weary public.

That task grew even more difficult in recent days as the death toll among US troops serving in Iraq reached a grim milestone of 3,500.

Yesterday's announcement by Mr Gates came on a day of house cleaning at the Pentagon. A military spokesman said that the Pentagon had asked two military judges at Guantánamo to reconsider their decisions to dismiss all charges against two detainees on the grounds that the military tribunals convened by the Bush administration lacked proper jurisdiction to hear the cases.

The detainees, Omar Khadr, a Canadian arrested as a teenager who is accused of lobbing a grenade at an army medic, and Yasser Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni accused of being Osama bin Laden's driver, remained in detention.