10thzodiac
06-19-07, 11:06 PM
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ON Point Editorial: An Analysis of General Pace’s Departure
06-11-2007, 10:59 AM • by ON Point (http://uscavonpoint.com/User/Profile.aspx?UserID=2106)
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced on Friday that General Peter Pace—the first Marine to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—would not be nominated for a second term. Publicly, Gates said that the Bush Administration was unwilling to endure a “backward-looking” nomination. It’s possible, however, that there were other reasons.
Pentagon troops (meaning, majors and lieutenant colonels) reacted in two ways. Some believed General Pace to be a sacrificial lamb to the evil cut-and-run Democrats who infiltrated Congress this past January. They found it unfair that such a charming, distinguished professional would be cut from the team. And they saw it as yet another sign that loss was being inflicted upon them by Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and the New York Times.
Other warriors had a different view. “[General Pace] has dishonored himself and dishonored the Marine Corps by his conduct—his weak, vacillating leadership and his craven pandering to political masters,” wrote Larry C. Johnson in an editorial. Johnson, a former CIA operator and counterterrorism expert, used the derisive nickname “Perfect Peter” to describe Pace’s Beltway-interior reputation. “Peter has been more willing than others to sell his soul for political expediency,” he wrote:
When I graduated from the Naval Academy in 1998, I—along with the rest of my classmates—briefly met President Bill Clinton. He spoke, and we all shook his hand after receiving our diplomas. The President gave each of us that famous misty-eyed look of his—the same look he gave America that won him two elections. The same look he gave Congressmen through game after game of political chicken. The same look he gave an intern that almost led to his impeachment.
<O:p</O:p
General Pace—minus the razor-sharp intellect and uncontrolled libido—appears to have been the Bill Clinton of four-stars. Like Clinton’s presidency, General Pace’s career has been defined by an informal system of polling—sensing the way the wind is blowing in a meeting, or around an issue, and then jumping in front, or out of the way. <O:p
And, like Clinton, General Pace has the look. I’ve seen that look myself, on the three occasions that I met him. Pace can take the emotion of the moment and express it. His eyes say, “I’m with you. I feel your pain.” And the general will mean it.
But in an odd performance for a general, Pace did not hesitate to offer that look in defense of his boss, former Secretary Rumsfeld, when a press corps was hounding him. “He works nights, he works weekends,” Pace said of a man who used him publicly as little more than a uniformed stooge for his policies. As Vice Chairman, Pace perfected the technique of offering Rumsfeld the honest military advice that the secretary wanted to hear. In return, Pace apparently got what he wanted—the Chairmanship.
The event that would have likely precipitated a “contentious hearing” came two weeks ago, when General Pace penned a letter about Mr. Scooter Libby to U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton, who would later sentence him to 30 months in jail for perjury. “I was always very impressed with Mr. Libby’s professionalism,” wrote Pace, hedging his language while hoping that his letter would in some way assist his old colleague—and perhaps be valued by his his political masters.
Although General Pace—like former President Clinton—has always known the right things to say for the photo ops, his letter on behalf of Libby seemed to reveal unpleasant truths about his character. Pace’s eye may have always been pointed towards currying favor with either his boss or his troops to further his professional ambition, instead of offering unvarnished military advice.
When he was a second lieutenant, he wanted to be the Commandant someday,” a Marine who knew Pace in Vietnam once told me, not admiringly. The man said, with pride, that he had been scuttled over to the Joint Chiefs because the Corps elite had rejected him so stridently.
<O:pGeneral Pace will be remembered as the first Marine officer to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. But if these statements regarding his reputation are accurate, the Marine Corps—and the U.S. military—will be better served
David J. Danelo is editor of ON Point.
ON Point Editorial: An Analysis of General Pace’s Departure
06-11-2007, 10:59 AM • by ON Point (http://uscavonpoint.com/User/Profile.aspx?UserID=2106)
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced on Friday that General Peter Pace—the first Marine to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—would not be nominated for a second term. Publicly, Gates said that the Bush Administration was unwilling to endure a “backward-looking” nomination. It’s possible, however, that there were other reasons.
Pentagon troops (meaning, majors and lieutenant colonels) reacted in two ways. Some believed General Pace to be a sacrificial lamb to the evil cut-and-run Democrats who infiltrated Congress this past January. They found it unfair that such a charming, distinguished professional would be cut from the team. And they saw it as yet another sign that loss was being inflicted upon them by Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and the New York Times.
Other warriors had a different view. “[General Pace] has dishonored himself and dishonored the Marine Corps by his conduct—his weak, vacillating leadership and his craven pandering to political masters,” wrote Larry C. Johnson in an editorial. Johnson, a former CIA operator and counterterrorism expert, used the derisive nickname “Perfect Peter” to describe Pace’s Beltway-interior reputation. “Peter has been more willing than others to sell his soul for political expediency,” he wrote:
When I graduated from the Naval Academy in 1998, I—along with the rest of my classmates—briefly met President Bill Clinton. He spoke, and we all shook his hand after receiving our diplomas. The President gave each of us that famous misty-eyed look of his—the same look he gave America that won him two elections. The same look he gave Congressmen through game after game of political chicken. The same look he gave an intern that almost led to his impeachment.
<O:p</O:p
General Pace—minus the razor-sharp intellect and uncontrolled libido—appears to have been the Bill Clinton of four-stars. Like Clinton’s presidency, General Pace’s career has been defined by an informal system of polling—sensing the way the wind is blowing in a meeting, or around an issue, and then jumping in front, or out of the way. <O:p
And, like Clinton, General Pace has the look. I’ve seen that look myself, on the three occasions that I met him. Pace can take the emotion of the moment and express it. His eyes say, “I’m with you. I feel your pain.” And the general will mean it.
But in an odd performance for a general, Pace did not hesitate to offer that look in defense of his boss, former Secretary Rumsfeld, when a press corps was hounding him. “He works nights, he works weekends,” Pace said of a man who used him publicly as little more than a uniformed stooge for his policies. As Vice Chairman, Pace perfected the technique of offering Rumsfeld the honest military advice that the secretary wanted to hear. In return, Pace apparently got what he wanted—the Chairmanship.
The event that would have likely precipitated a “contentious hearing” came two weeks ago, when General Pace penned a letter about Mr. Scooter Libby to U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton, who would later sentence him to 30 months in jail for perjury. “I was always very impressed with Mr. Libby’s professionalism,” wrote Pace, hedging his language while hoping that his letter would in some way assist his old colleague—and perhaps be valued by his his political masters.
Although General Pace—like former President Clinton—has always known the right things to say for the photo ops, his letter on behalf of Libby seemed to reveal unpleasant truths about his character. Pace’s eye may have always been pointed towards currying favor with either his boss or his troops to further his professional ambition, instead of offering unvarnished military advice.
When he was a second lieutenant, he wanted to be the Commandant someday,” a Marine who knew Pace in Vietnam once told me, not admiringly. The man said, with pride, that he had been scuttled over to the Joint Chiefs because the Corps elite had rejected him so stridently.
<O:pGeneral Pace will be remembered as the first Marine officer to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. But if these statements regarding his reputation are accurate, the Marine Corps—and the U.S. military—will be better served
David J. Danelo is editor of ON Point.