Marcus General Pace Refused Voluntarily Retire
June 15th, 2007 by Marcus
More information is coming out how Gen Pace was tossed aside as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
WASHINGTON — 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.
I applaud General Pace for refusing to walk out on us troops. He had more to say.
"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.
That is the definition of a great leader. He could have easily retired, but he chose not to leave us until he was forced to. His fortitude in the face of is further shown by his wanting to remain on as Joint Chief no matter what kind of opposition he could have faced in the Senate.
"He brought me in the office and sat me down and said `Pete, this is what's happening. I want to re-nominate you. I want you to know that this is what I'm beginning to hear, this is what I'm going to go do, this is how I'm going to go do it."'
"He went out and did exactly what he said on television, and exactly what he's been saying in his interviews, which is he went out and pulsed various members of Congress and he heard back from them the things that he said that he heard," Pace said.
At that point, Pace said, he assured Gates that he was willing to go through even a contentious confirmation process.
I still believe it is a huge mistake to replace General Pace at this point because it might be tough to get him reconfirmed. This decision is an act of appeasement on the part of Sec Gates and President Bush that should not happen. We are making progress in Iraq, and we are doing the right thing. This only sends a message to the defeatist in Congress that the current administration has lost the will to fight the political fight in Washington. How much longer will they have the will to continue the fight in Iraq where it is needed the most?
I completely agree. Thanks for the update. Gen Pace is an outstanding and honorable Marine, and Harry Reid owes him a public apology!!
GEN Page is a honorable, honest LEADER. He has more honor and integrety than the entire Congress in my opinion. He needs to be re-nominated and the ONLY people who should be aplogizing are his hate-filled, elitist, and ignorant critics.
Murtha, Reid, Nancy (Speaker of the House is NOT Secretary of State) Pelosi, and Co are the ones who should be "forced to retire".
Cpl. M., I really don't believe Reid has the clout to push that Marine out of position. There are only two people who have the power. This would not be coming from the Congress. Those two people are POTUS and SECDEF, the force came from the top down. These are the same two people who owe Gen. Pace an apology. The question may be more about SECDEF, don't forget he came from the "Iraqi Study Group". If we look at this, I would not be surprized to see some other radical changes. It seems to me, there is a type of caveat between POTUS and SECDEF. This would be based on implementation of the findings of "Iraqi Study Group" and its ongoing progress. Gen. Petraeus is coming back this September and his report will be the metric for SECDEF. He may be right on Gen. Pace's heels.
Grumpy
Grumpy~
The SecDef can recommend, and the President can appoint, anyone they wish as CJCS. However, Congress has oversight in the approval process. I guess there were enough Defeatist Dems saying they wouldn't vote to confirm, and that they would use this confirmation process to beat up on the past conduct of the war(s) we are fighting, instead of looking forward to what we, as a nation, need to do from this point forward. Although I can't say I like the decision that was reached, I can see why those two thought it might be best to avoid the circus that the Democrat-controlled Senate would turn it into…
Benedict Arnold. Neville Chamberlain. Philip Agee. There's quite a long list of those who opposed and still today oppose Independence, Victory, God and Country, Freedom, and Liberty. Since the first Pilgrims landed on the future United States of America shores, a valiant and courageous people began to form and be born. A valiant people who, a century and a half later, would develop a Republic nation whose Constitution would enable this nation to become the greatest nation Earth has ever known.
Our Intelligence Communities, Military, and LEOs are the best to be be had. However a handful of creeps in each of these organizations have bamboozled some of "We the People" into believing the worst of these fine men and women.
General Pace, you join the ranks of leaders such as Generals George Washington and George Patton, men who also were maligned by creeps, but history has vindicated these men as honorable men who loved and gave their all to God and Country, and so too, your honor will not be tarnished by tiny men such as Harry Reid and those who would malign Generals Pace and Petraeus.
Thanks M. You possess tremendous courage.
Miss Ladybug,
As to your reply, you are correct, SECDEF can recommend and POTUS appoint anyone they wish for CJCS. SECDEF said, "It was my intent to appoint Peter Pace as Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff." Then why didn't he just do it? I realize, the President then has to go on record and state his view! Now the best person to be in that role is General Peter Pace, especially for this type of war.
To All Readers,
As we look at this whole situation, we need to understand some basic concepts of warfare. To start, we MUST look at the past to learn the PRINCIPLES of WARFARE. Only after we learn the PRINCIPLES of WAR, do we begin learning the METHODS/ WEAPONS OF WAR. Methods/Weapons of war change on a regular basis, principles don't change at all. Principles of war are always learned in the context of history. I'll really prove I'm a REALLY "GRUMPY" OLD VET, with the use of this illustration but it is still very true. "It has been often said, 'If we don't learn from history, we are condemned to repeat it over and over again, even until the end of time.'" This is really what we are talking about a war that has the potential to go on for 10,000 years. These people are living in the area of the Biblical Garden of Eden, The "Green Zone" is just outside of it. These people have been fighting since the beginning of time. Are you suggesting, we're going to be ones who will stop it forever? I don't think so. If POTUS, thinks this war is so important, our young men are giving their lives, he should renominate Gen. Peter Pace as CJCS. Yes, there would be questions about the war, but this would be true of any choice. In the final analysis, on the first day of his approval hearings, you would at the General's face and you would see an attitude. On his face, you would see a smile and the attitude saying, "Let the games begin!"
Grumpy
I was so proud when I read what Gen Pace had to say as a response and not one bit surprised.
I too posted his words ~ how stark the contrast between the General and the mamby pambies that make up our Congress and unfortunately it seems, our administration these days.
I totally agree with Chris G. I am sure Pace has more honor in his pinky than the U.S. Congress' members all have combined. If anybody here thinks are choices were bad in 2004's elections, then I don't see anything better with the batch of candidates running for 2008. I mean, most of them voted for the Iraq invasion to send our troops there except for one, and we just happen to still be in Iraq. So why do we want to put somebody who past the buck to themselves in the Oval Office? Something's out of order here!