thedrifter
07-18-07, 06:36 PM
Pace reflects on Iraq war as retirement nears
By Robert Burns - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 18, 2007 18:15:30 EDT
BAGHDAD — For Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the last of the original military planners of the Iraq war, visiting U.S. troops this week was not exactly a victory lap en route to his earlier-than-expected retirement.
But neither did it evoke a sense of defeat.
From the things he said and did, what may well be his farewell tour seemed almost business as usual for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: inspecting, questioning, encouraging commanders and troops.
Pace, a lanky man with a ready smile and a knack for public speaking without notes, is the only Marine to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He has been the principal military adviser to the president and the secretary of defense since October 2005, and for four years before that, he was the Joint Chiefs’ No. 2.
“I’m going to run through the finish line,” he said on the way into Baghdad this week. And then he did run, almost literally, from one commanders’ meeting to another, from one question-and-answer session with troops to another.
With obvious joy, he presided at a re-enlistment ceremony. With clear sorrow, he knelt at a 3rd Infantry Division monument to the soldiers it has lost here, sifting through dog tags to read each detail.
Although his Oct. 1 retirement date is drawing near, Pace said he’d be back. And he insisted that the visit carried no special meaning beyond the usual importance of inspecting things firsthand, which he did from dawn to dusk and beyond, across Baghdad and in the restive city of Ramadi.
“This visit for me is the same as the one last month and the one I would have made in October if I was still around,” he said in an interview. “This is me doing what I should do: getting out, visiting with troops, listening to commanders ... taking the pulse on the ground, getting my own sense of the battle.”
It’s a battle that almost no one who was involved at the start had imagined would still be in doubt.
During the run-up to the U.S. invasion in March 2003 and for the next two years, Pace was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, second fiddle to Air Force Gen. Richard Myers. He had a voice in war planning and Iraq policy but was not widely viewed as an architect of the strategy for toppling Saddam Hussein.
Even so, at a stage in the war where prominent lawmakers of President Bush’s own party are calling for troop withdrawals, Pace is now seen as part of the crowd that turned a quick military triumph into a quagmire.
“I think he had enormous influence over the planning for the war, the approach taken, the good parts and the bad parts,” said Daniel Goure, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. “He was deeply involved at all levels,” and thus can be held responsible for the mistakes that were made.
Goure does not buy the argument that Pace failed to speak up when important decisions were discussed, even during the tenure of Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary who some critics say managed to cow the senior military leadership when they disagreed with his approach.
“I don’t think it was a matter of them silently acquiescing,” Goure said.
Some thought Pace might be among the casualties when Bush, after last November’s elections put Democrats in control of Congress, dumped Rumsfeld, switched generals in Baghdad and installed a new war strategy.
The break with Pace did not happen until June, when Robert Gates, the former CIA director whom Bush selected to succeed Rumsfeld, made the surprise announcement that Bush would not ask the Senate to confirm Pace for a second-two year term as Joint Chiefs chairman.
It wasn’t that Pace had underperformed, Gates said, but that the administration would rather not engage in a confirmation battle that — given Pace’s history — seemed certain to focus on Iraq mistakes. Bush nominated the Navy’s top admiral, Mike Mullen, to take Pace’s place.
Pace outlasted not only Rumsfeld and his top civilian deputies — Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and policy chief Douglas Feith — but also the leading military figures involved in the early days of the war. Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who wrote the invasion plan and commanded U.S. troops at the start of the war retired three months after Baghdad fell; Army Gen. John Abizaid, who succeeded Franks, retired this past spring, and Army Gen. George Casey, who was sent to Iraq in July 2004 to take command, returned to Washington in February.
Throughout, Pace has made it a practice to visit Iraq to see for himself how the troops are bearing up.
And then there is his other trademark: “coining” every troop he can find — from officers to privates.
It’s a sight to behold: the four-star general spinning in every direction, shouting for all to hear: “Did I miss anyone? Anyone not get a coin?”
Aides lug bags full of Pace’s pentagonal-shaped commemorative coins. He hands them out by the thousands on his regular visits to Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond. On one side is depicted the blue-and-white flag of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs; on the other side are four small stars surrounded by the insignia of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.
“These things go for about 5,000 bucks on eBay,” he jokingly tells troops before he begins dishing them out. “Does anybody within the sound of my voice not have a coin?”
After the Iraq visit, Pace moved on to Afghanistan on Wednesday, talking with troops and handing out more coins.
He told them, “Came a long way ... to be able to say two very important words to you, and that is, ‘Thank you.”’
Ellie
By Robert Burns - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 18, 2007 18:15:30 EDT
BAGHDAD — For Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the last of the original military planners of the Iraq war, visiting U.S. troops this week was not exactly a victory lap en route to his earlier-than-expected retirement.
But neither did it evoke a sense of defeat.
From the things he said and did, what may well be his farewell tour seemed almost business as usual for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: inspecting, questioning, encouraging commanders and troops.
Pace, a lanky man with a ready smile and a knack for public speaking without notes, is the only Marine to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He has been the principal military adviser to the president and the secretary of defense since October 2005, and for four years before that, he was the Joint Chiefs’ No. 2.
“I’m going to run through the finish line,” he said on the way into Baghdad this week. And then he did run, almost literally, from one commanders’ meeting to another, from one question-and-answer session with troops to another.
With obvious joy, he presided at a re-enlistment ceremony. With clear sorrow, he knelt at a 3rd Infantry Division monument to the soldiers it has lost here, sifting through dog tags to read each detail.
Although his Oct. 1 retirement date is drawing near, Pace said he’d be back. And he insisted that the visit carried no special meaning beyond the usual importance of inspecting things firsthand, which he did from dawn to dusk and beyond, across Baghdad and in the restive city of Ramadi.
“This visit for me is the same as the one last month and the one I would have made in October if I was still around,” he said in an interview. “This is me doing what I should do: getting out, visiting with troops, listening to commanders ... taking the pulse on the ground, getting my own sense of the battle.”
It’s a battle that almost no one who was involved at the start had imagined would still be in doubt.
During the run-up to the U.S. invasion in March 2003 and for the next two years, Pace was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, second fiddle to Air Force Gen. Richard Myers. He had a voice in war planning and Iraq policy but was not widely viewed as an architect of the strategy for toppling Saddam Hussein.
Even so, at a stage in the war where prominent lawmakers of President Bush’s own party are calling for troop withdrawals, Pace is now seen as part of the crowd that turned a quick military triumph into a quagmire.
“I think he had enormous influence over the planning for the war, the approach taken, the good parts and the bad parts,” said Daniel Goure, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. “He was deeply involved at all levels,” and thus can be held responsible for the mistakes that were made.
Goure does not buy the argument that Pace failed to speak up when important decisions were discussed, even during the tenure of Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary who some critics say managed to cow the senior military leadership when they disagreed with his approach.
“I don’t think it was a matter of them silently acquiescing,” Goure said.
Some thought Pace might be among the casualties when Bush, after last November’s elections put Democrats in control of Congress, dumped Rumsfeld, switched generals in Baghdad and installed a new war strategy.
The break with Pace did not happen until June, when Robert Gates, the former CIA director whom Bush selected to succeed Rumsfeld, made the surprise announcement that Bush would not ask the Senate to confirm Pace for a second-two year term as Joint Chiefs chairman.
It wasn’t that Pace had underperformed, Gates said, but that the administration would rather not engage in a confirmation battle that — given Pace’s history — seemed certain to focus on Iraq mistakes. Bush nominated the Navy’s top admiral, Mike Mullen, to take Pace’s place.
Pace outlasted not only Rumsfeld and his top civilian deputies — Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and policy chief Douglas Feith — but also the leading military figures involved in the early days of the war. Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who wrote the invasion plan and commanded U.S. troops at the start of the war retired three months after Baghdad fell; Army Gen. John Abizaid, who succeeded Franks, retired this past spring, and Army Gen. George Casey, who was sent to Iraq in July 2004 to take command, returned to Washington in February.
Throughout, Pace has made it a practice to visit Iraq to see for himself how the troops are bearing up.
And then there is his other trademark: “coining” every troop he can find — from officers to privates.
It’s a sight to behold: the four-star general spinning in every direction, shouting for all to hear: “Did I miss anyone? Anyone not get a coin?”
Aides lug bags full of Pace’s pentagonal-shaped commemorative coins. He hands them out by the thousands on his regular visits to Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond. On one side is depicted the blue-and-white flag of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs; on the other side are four small stars surrounded by the insignia of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.
“These things go for about 5,000 bucks on eBay,” he jokingly tells troops before he begins dishing them out. “Does anybody within the sound of my voice not have a coin?”
After the Iraq visit, Pace moved on to Afghanistan on Wednesday, talking with troops and handing out more coins.
He told them, “Came a long way ... to be able to say two very important words to you, and that is, ‘Thank you.”’
Ellie