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thedrifter
05-19-07, 06:24 AM
Pace Expected to Stay
Associated Press | May 11, 2007

WASHINGTON - President Bush is expected to nominate Marine Gen. Peter Pace to serve a second two-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, maintaining Pace's leadership during the increasingly unpopular Iraq war.

The move would keep Pace as one of the top two military leaders for eight years - longer than anyone else has served as chairman and vice chairman of the joint staff, since the post was first filled in 1949.

A senior defense official, who requested anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made, said it was not clear when the decision would be made public. The position requires Senate approval.

Pace's renomination also requires at least two waivers. One is because he will have served more than six years combined as chairman and vice chairman of the joint staff; the second would allow him to continue to serve on active duty beyond age 62. The Vietnam War veteran will turn 62 in November.

Although Pace has held a top leadership position during the entire length of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, he has largely escaped the harsh criticism faced by other architects of the war. Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down late last year after a watershed anti-war election vote gave control of the House and Senate to the Democrats.

More recently, the cadre of U.S. military commanders in the Middle East turned over, giving the Bush administration a fresh group to map out how to extricate U.S. troops from Iraq without leaving the fledgling democracy in chaos.

Since Robert Gates took over as defense secretary in December, Pace has traveled with him to the warfront three times - twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan.

Gates also has frequently deferred to the chairman on military details or programs when taking questions during congressional testimony and at press conferences.

Gates has suggested that he did not want a lot of turbulence or turnover within the Pentagon during his tenure, in part because winning Senate approval for a nominee can be long and difficult.

Pace became the first Marine to be named chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the second man to move from vice chairman to chairman. He served as vice chairman for four years.

While Gates runs the Pentagon, Pace is the top military officer and most senior uniformed adviser to Gates and to the president. Pace does not technically command any troops.

Ellie