Pace says he was forced out

[Perky]

Pace Says He Refused to Quit Voluntarily

By ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- In his first public comments on the Bush administration's surprise decision to replace him as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Peter Pace disclosed that he had turned down an offer to voluntarily retire rather than be forced out.

To quit in wartime, he said, would be letting down the troops.

Pace, responding to a question from the audience after he spoke at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va., on Thursday evening, said he first heard that his expected nomination for a second two-year term was in jeopardy in mid-May. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on June 8 announced Pace was being replaced.

"One thing that was discussed was whether or not I should just voluntarily retire and take the issue off the table," Pace said, according to a transcript released Friday by his office at the Pentagon.

"I said I could not do that for one very fundamental reason," which is that no soldier or Marine in Iraq should "think - ever - that his chairman, whoever that person is, could have stayed in the battle and voluntarily walked off the battlefield.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ?SITE=CATOR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-06-15-13-03-36

[MADem]

1. Well.....DUUUUUUUH!!!!! Like this was a surprise. I have to say, I respect Gates for insisting.

The guy was the WRONG PICK for the job. And seeing as he was the FIRST USMC CJCS, he really made that branch look bad, because he was a political, desk-driving, minimum-operational, ladder-climbing fucker. And I'm not the only one who feels that way. He spent more time burnishing his resume than taking care of his subordinates. And it showed in his job performance.

The job isn't to be a Presidential rubber-stamp. He was supposed to give unvarnished, real-time, blunt advice to both Monkey and SECDEF. Instead, he served as a fanciful cheerleader for failed policies and strategies. The blood of many of the dead is on his hands, IMO.

[TwilightGardener]

2. I don't know. Pace didn't always go along with the neocon propaganda program, as least

in his comments to the press--I kinda liked that about him. The "gay" comments he made were uncalled for and inappropriate for his position, but hardly surprising. I have mixed feelings about him.

[MADem]

5. I knew him when. Let me tell you, that guy had his nose up the ass of anyone who could advance him.

His operational tours were the absolute SHORTEST in history--in, out, check the block, run like hell back to flying a desk in DC or any airconditioned staff billet. If it involved hardship or being distant from the seat of power, he did the bare bones minimum.

My feelings aren't mixed about this guy at all, and with good reason. Wrong guy, wrong job, operationally OBTUSE, and Peter Principled well beyond his capabilities, because he was such a good brown-noser. He should have NEVER gotten #2 at JCS, never mind the top slot. But hey, his lips felt so good on Bush's ass. ...

Now, the poor USMC has to live with his legacy. He was the FIRST, and he SUCKED. It will make it hard for them to get a shot at the position in future. Former USMC Commandant, GEN Jones, would have been infinitely preferable as a choice--he was competent, knowledgeable (both operationally and politically), he gave frank, unvarnished advice, and he had outstanding judgment as well as the respect of not only his USMC subordinates, but the entire Department of the Navy--he was that good. And moreover, that guy, in contrast to Petey boy, didn't shy away from operational responsibilities; in fact, he preferred them. Unlike Pace, who is way too fucking comfortable in dress uniform...IMO.

If they'd made General Jones the first USMC pick on the JCS, we might not have been stuck in this mess we're in now. But the choice of Pace was deliberate--they wanted a Yes Man, and that's what they got.

[TwilightGardener]

8. Well, I defer to your informed opinion, then. I would have been

surprised if Bush had hired anyone other than a "yes" man, although Gates doesn't seem to be quite as willing to play that role at times. I was fooled by Pace's occasional willingness to be candid.

[MADem]

11. Gates is NOT Porgie's pick, though. I think he's POPPY's choice.

He's an old pal of Poppy's, and he was dragged back into public service when the Rummy bullshit was just unsustainable. I believe it was the Jim Baker crew that gave little Monkey the "come to Jesus" lecture and pretty much forced Gates on him. See, GHWB and Gates go back a LOOOOOONG way (and that is why many were surprised at the pick). From his bio (read the whole thing, it's pretty interesting): http://www.defenselink.mil/Bios/BiographyDetail.aspx?BiographyID=115&4115=20061218

Dr. Robert M. Gates was sworn in on December 18, 2006, as the 22nd Secretary of Defense. Before entering his present post, Secretary Gates was the President of Texas A&M University, the nation’s seventh largest university. Prior to assuming the presidency of Texas A&M on August 1, 2002, he served as Interim Dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M from 1999 to 2001.

Secretary Gates served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1991 until 1993. Secretary Gates is the only career officer in CIA’s history to rise from entry-level employee to Director. He served as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence from 1986 until 1989 and as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser at the White House from January 20, 1989, until November 6, 1991, for President George H.W. Bush.

Secretary Gates joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1966 and spent nearly 27 years as an intelligence professional, serving six presidents. During that period, he spent nearly nine years at the National Security Council, The White House, serving four presidents of both political parties.

Gates isn't thrilled to be there; he only took the job with the assurances that HE calls the shots with no bullshit from Monkeyboy. I do think he wants to find a way to get us out of Iraq without tarring the nitwit with the cut-n-run problem, let's hope he can do that without also pushing us into Iran in the process.

Pace DID have that appearance of "boyish candor" down, especially when he was speaking without a senior nearby, but it was a total sham. If you ever have an opportunity to review any of his DOD pressers with Rummy, it's pretty plain to see that those brown smudges on his nose aren't due to bad lighting in the Pentagon briefing room.

[Perky]

4. Public spinning and field operations are different things

In the filed he was dealt a pretyy poos unwinnable hand.

[MADem]

10. You're forgetting, though, that this baastid was VCJCS before he was CJCS.

He's been up in thar rarified air for awhile now, since OCT 2001--he got the Vice Chairmanship less than a MONTH after "Nahn Wun Wun changed ever-thang." He was onboard BEFORE we went INTO the field, and he was a second USMC expert (ha! So-called) on the JCS panel.

He has no fucking excuses.

I'll tell ya who has got to be pissed at Pace's poor performance--Ed Giambastini, the VCJCS. Because Pace goes, and Mike Mullen (another Navy man) gets the nod, he has to leave. Unlike Pace, though, he didn't whine, cry, and wait to be shown the door, he just handed in his papers as soon as the handwriting was on the wall. Gates IS, remarkably, nominating another Marine to the panel as Vice Chair--a guy named Jim Cartwright, from STRATCOM. We'll see how that works out...

Despite all of this "off the cuff" and "gee, we changed our minds quickly" BS that DOD is handing out, I think this change in leadership has been in the works for awhile, and the replacements had been already well vetted internally before any announcements were made.

[Marie26]

6. What's your opinion on Robert Gates?

I actually think he's OK. It's a thankless job in a corrupt Administration, but he does seem more competent than Rumsfeld, and much less ideological.

[MADem]

14. Old CIA hand--crusty, practical, and certainly no fool.

I ramble on about him upthread in post 11.

If Monkey had picked him instead of Rummy, well, who knows? Maybe "Nahn Wun Wun" might not have happened. You know what they say -- Once a CIA Director, always a CIA Director. He continued to get "the briefs," but I imagine he would have gotten much better ones, and understood pretty clearly that Dickie C. was trying to push and mold intelligence, had he been in an operational job close to the throne.

Of course, Monkey wouldn't have picked him, first, because he's competent, and second, because he wanted to be his own man and "prove" something to his "Deddy." All he's proved, after these many years of hell, is that yes, he IS the worst president ever, his Deddy's measured methodology was a wiser course of action, and even though he got the guy who tried to kill his Deddy, he had to kill thousands of US servicemembers, maim tens of thousands more, and kill countless Iraqis in the process--all to get a foolish little souveneir like the gun Saddam had when they pulled him out of that stupid hole.

But certainly, if Gates can extract us from Iraq after we've given time for this surge to not work, and given who knows how many ultimatums to a corrupt government in Iraq, without getting us INTO Iran, I'll give him good marks. Compared to Rummy, in any event, he's already at the head of the class!!!

[BOSSHOG]

3. And tony snowjob got his panties in a wad about Senator Reid's

comments to/about General Pace. But its okay for tony's handler to fire the man, kick him to the curb, shove him out the door like he did to General Shinseki. bush may have selected more then he can handle with Admiral Mullen. He sure ain't no General Pace. I will be watching closely to see who attends Pace's retirement ceremony.

[Bucky]

7. Pace, for all his flaws, was never a koolaid drinker.

He wanted to serve and do the right thing. Under the right leader, he could have done a honorable job for the country.
I don't have the same feeling about the politically slick Gen Petraeus. We'll see what stuff he's made of in September.

[librechik]

9. but he did back down from every common sense position he took

right after he said it to the press. Bushie SPANK!

[Bucky]

16. Generals defer to the civilian authorities. That's the way it needs to be.

I agree he should've stood up for the facts more, but ultimately speaking truth to power is the job of civilians, not the military.

[MADem]

15. Oh yes he was--he has been on the Joint Chiefs since OCT 2001.

He was the VICE CHAIR, don't forget, and one of the key cheerleaders for military action in Iraq. Hell, in some respects, he was the go-to guy for that kind of justification, because Flyboy Myers, the Chair at the time, had no groundpounding experience at all.

You err if you give that guy a pass--there's lots of blood on his hands.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. My heart bleeds for the general. How does it feel to be collateral damage, Pete?

Poor fella. Tsk, tsk. Sigh.

[LostInAnomie]

13. "To quit in wartime, he said, would be letting down the troops."

How arrogant and self-important these people are. As is the world and the troops will to live revolves around them.

Sorry Pete, but I think the troops morale can take you not having a cushy, well paid, well benefitted job.

[Peace Patriot]

17. Anybody wonder about Rumsfeld being gone with no change of policy in Iraq?

70+% of the American people opposed to the war and wanting it ended, and we get the "surge"--a dramatic ESCALATION (so-o-o Vietnam-like) and another $100 billion of our non-existent money thrown down that golden-lined rat-hole. What's changed? Rumsfeld might as well still be in charge.

I am puzzled by this--in a chess game/"The Art of War" kind of way--and I have thought that Rumsfeld being gone has something to do with Plamegate (or possibly some other colossal scandal). It's Rumsfeld who had the most operational interest in disabling any honest professionals at the CIA. Cheney/Libby were more on the political end of things. And I've speculated that there was a plan to plant WMDs in Iraq, after the invasion and to "stage" a phony "discovery" of them (probably nukes, as part 2 of the Niger forgeries scam), hatched in Rumsfeld's OSP. The plan (not really a plan of war, but a plan to manipulate public opinion AFTER the invasion, and also lay the political groundwork for invading Iran) failed. Somebody foiled it. (Someone in Plame's Brewster-Jennings network? David Kelly in the UK?) Cheney/Libby have been dealing with the political fallout from that failure ever since.

Perhaps this is why Rumsfeld is gone--that he failed in the plan to justify the war, and now it's a big headache and political mess for the war profiteers. Or maybe the sheer scandal of it has been rumbling behind the scenes, threatening to erupt into the public venue. And there are other possible Rumsfeld-connected crimes--say, the real reasons for all the torture and secret prisons (surely no one believes that these horrors were to "keep us safe"); or Bush Cartel money trails to Al Qaeda and 9/11; or illicit arms/nukes/bioweapons dealings.

I find it really interesting that Rumsfeld is gone, and Cheney and Rove remain. Is it just that Rumsfeld was such a scumbag that the whole venture was being discredited, and needed a more upright-seeming "czar" to keep the war profiteer booty coming in (--like all this vile nonsense about MRAPs--bomb-proof vehicles--bring the troops home and you don't need no stinkin nother multi-billion dollar boondoggle for the war industry!)? But Cheney is as big a scumbag as Rumsfeld. Why wasn't he "retired"?

Or is it that the more upright-seeming "czar" types in the "military-industrial" monster are trying to salvage the scare power of U.S. military might, and their own reputations? Thus, the musical chairs among Rumsfeld, Gates, Pace, Petraeus, et al.

I think the military budget needs to be cut back, by about 90%, to a true defensive posture (no more wars of choice!), and I think I am not alone in being outraged and fed up with this drain on our country, with manufactured to wars (to keep the beast fed), and with massive and unjustifiable carnage in the interest of corporate predators. Are we just seeing a dance among the war profiteers, to stave off the righteous, budget-cutting vengeance of the American people (should we ever recover our right to vote from Diebold/ES&S)? Or are these personnel changes more meaningful than that, as to policy?

I just dunno. I am inclined toward the more cynical view, that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld have served their purposes for the war profiteers, gaining this new foothold in the Middle East, that the war profiteers, who are controlling foreign policy, will never permit any President to give up. Now they have to whitewash the even more explosive scandals as to how this was done. Thus, Rumsfeld's departure (maybe?). Tidy up the front room a bit, for guests; leave the scandalous messes in the back rooms; shut the doors.

[malaise]

18. I don't give a fugg

One more Bush hack departs bawling like a baby.