General Pace Retires, Admiral Mullen Sworn In

“We have an enemy who has declared war on us. We are in a war. They want to stop us from living the way we want to live our lives." Marine Corps General Peter Pace said during his sun-splashed retirement ceremony Monday on the parade field at Fort Myer, Virginia. “We will prevail, there’s no doubt about that.”

Gen. Pace, who ends a 40-year career that began as a rifle platoon leader in the Vietnam War and ended as the first Marine to be CJCS, addressed a standing-room-only crowd that included President Bush, Vice President Cheney, SECDEF Robert Gates, Gates’ predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, the service secretaries and the JCS.

Pace deliberately blurred the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, although it is the Iraq war that appears to provoke the most national anger and most of the calls for the withdrawal of troops. His comments aimed at acknowledging both that anger and what officials have said is the fragile depth of the nation’s ground forces, which are wearing thin from the strain of fighting the two wars — a situation that some critics say has significantly weakened the military’s ability to respond elsewhere around the world if called upon.

The officer sworn in Monday to replace Pace, US Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, expressed a similar desire to rebuild during his own remarks. “I’m ... eager to work closely with our service chiefs, our combatant commanders, as together we develop and execute a strategy to support our national interests in the Middle East; we reset, reconstitute and revitalize our armed forces, especially our ground forces; and we properly balance our risks around the globe,” Mullen said. “The fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan will one day end. We must be ready for who and what comes after.”

Getting to such a point, Pace said, will require thoughtful dialogue, not partisan bickering. While he didn’t mention Congress, the fights over war funding and calls for immediate withdrawal from Iraq that have marked the past year on Capitol Hill were clearly on his mind as he spoke his parting speech "What worries me is that in some instances right now we have individuals who are more interested in making somebody else look bad than they are in finding the right solution,” he said. “They are more interested in letting their personal venom come forward instead of talking about how do we get from where we are to where we need to be.”

Adm. Mullen said “We owe it to the American people and to all of you, our men and women in uniform and your families, to provide you with clear direction,” after being sworn in, as members of every branch of the armed services looked on. With honor guards and a flyover by fighter jets, it was a day of high ceremony for Mullen and the chairman he replaced, Gen. Pace.

Mullen was SECDEF Robert Gates’ choice to replace Pace, who had been vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs when the Iraq invasion was launched in 2003. Gates said he decided to replace rather than reappoint Pace because he feared the escalating debate over the Iraq war, particularly between the president and a frustrated Congress, would have triggered a bitter confirmation process that could have undermined the country.

A Marine still occupies the second biggest chair in the armed forces, the Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff is now General James E. Cartwright formerly Commander, United States Strategic Command.

Source: Marine Corps Times

Military Shock!!! Pace not to serve 2nd term!!!

In a shock announcement yesterday, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that he will be advising President Bush not to re-nominate Marine General Peter Pace as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Gates said he feared a contentious re-nomination hearing in the Senate that would focus too heavily on six years of war (while Pace served as Vice Chairman and later CJCOS) rather than the way ahead.

While Gates wanted to keep Pace, the first Marine to serve as CJCOS, for a second 2-year term in that job; he said he changed his mind because of the highly charged atmosphere in Congress over the length and direction of the Iraq war, which blew up this spring into a tough battle between Congress and the administration over war funding and ultimately unmet demands for measurable benchmarks of progress on the part of the Iraqi government.

Gates' choice of replacement is current Chief Of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Mullen. He said that, as with Pace, he had intended to ask President Bush to re-nominate Admiral Edmund Giambastiani as the Vice Chairman but that such a move became impossible once he’d decided on Mullen (right) because by law, the Chairman and Vice Chairman cannot be members of the same branch of service. Coincidently however, earlier in the week Giambastiani announced his intention to retire in August anyway.

As he will have to nominate a new Vice-Chairman as well so Gates has cleverly chosen U.S. Strategic Command chief Marine General James E. Cartwright. It appears that the Marines will retain their rightful presence in the top two hot seats that Pace held for 6 years.

Cartwright (left) has commanded StratCom since July 2004, where Gates said he is responsible for global command and control of U.S. strategic forces, computer network operations and Defense Department information operations. That experience, on top of his previous job as director for force structure, resources and assessment on the Joint Staff, make him “exceptionally well-qualified” for the Vice Chairman position.

The SECDEF vehemently denied that his decision anything to do with the way Pace had performed as Chairman, and he also declined to characterize the two high-level moves as a shakeup. “I think that this is an effort to do what I think is in the long-term interests of the services and the country, as well as the individuals involved,” he said. "General Pace has served our country with great distinction, and deserves the deepest thanks of the American people for a lifetime of service to our country and for his leadership.”

Seems to me that there has to be some give and take now that the damn Democrats are in control of the senate and a price must be paid for the President's necessary veto against them last month.

Souce: Military Times

Pace vows to kick ass!

Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke about the capability of U.S. forces to respond to North Korea or any other potential foe given ongoing U.S. commitments, citing if faced by a new threat, U.S. forces would have to use "“brute force"” as opposed to surgical strikes because of U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"“You need precision intelligence to drop precision munitions, and a lot of our precision intelligence assets are currently being used in the Gulf region, so some of those would not be available if we had to go some place else,"” Pace said. As a result, U.S. forces would have to use more unguided "“dumb bombs,"” resulting in more collateral damage; such an air campaign would be more akin to World War II or the Korean War rather than the precision-guided air war during the initial invasion of Iraq".

The highest ranking US Marine in history warned potential enemies not to underestimate the "“overwhelming combat power"” that U.S. forces can unleash if needed. "“It would not be as clean as we would like it to be, but it would certainly be sure, and the outcome would not be in doubt,"” he said.

Colonel Creedon, currently facing court-martial proceedings, echoed General Pace's sentiments, adding; "The destruction of our enemies will be complete and total" he seethed "Never before in the field of human conflict, has been seen what we have in store for the next bunch of clowns who challenge the awesome might of the United States of America, we ain't gonna start something but we're sure as hell gonna finish it. We're gonna clean their clocks".

Happy July 4th!

Happy July 4th to all my US visitors, don't blow off your fingers with the fireworks.
The big story might have been a pretty big rocket pushing the Space Shuttle Discovery into orbit that thankfully didn't turn into a firework itself, but there were two great 4th July speeches made today, one by the Commander in Chief: President Bush and another by the CJCS Marine General Peter Pace here on www.foxnews.com

Newsflash: Civilians die in war!

The chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff said today: "it would be premature for me to judge" the outcome of a Pentagon investigation into the killing of as many as a dozen Iraqi civilians by Marines.

Marine General Peter Pace said he believes its critically important to make the point that if certain service members are responsible for an atrocity there, "99.9% of our guys and gals are doing the job exactly the way they should be."

He also told FOX News that Gen. Mike Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, is going to reinforce the idea with the Marines "that that's what American fighting men and women do, they perform their mission with honor and dignity.
"And we'll let this investigation take its course and see where it goes and make it public," Pace said.

Pace's interview came a day after Rep. John Murtha, a prominent critic of Iraq policy, said that this incident last November in Haditha, Iraq, could undermine U.S. efforts there more than the Abu Ghraib prison scandal did. "I will not excuse murder, and this is what happened," he said. "This investigation should have been over two or three weeks afterward and it should have been made public and people should have been held responsible for it."

Pace added: "This investigation is ongoing. It would be premature for me to judge the outcome."

Colonel Creedon, of UNETIDA said: "Personally, I can say that this class of cover-up doesn't often happen in the military (unless it's an Area-51 situation, but that shit is done for your own good) and I'm sure there'll be a reasonable explanation for these events. It is an unfortunate fact of war that "innocent" people will die, that's how war gets a bad name. Most civvies that get shot, do so because they get in the in the way at an inopportune moment, but most get shot because they're running, don't run dammit! What are you running from? That'll get you shot; they even shoot you on the London Underground for that nowadays so why don't they think it'll happen in godammn warzone?"

Marine is the new CJCS

General Peter Pace was sworn in as sixteenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Sep. 30, 2005. In this capacity, he serves as the principal military advisor to the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the National Security Council. Prior to becoming Chairman, he served as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2001 to August 12, 2005. General Pace is the first Marine to serve as Chairman. He also holds the distinction of being the first Marine to have served as the Vice Chairman.

I've been following the career of this man since Somalia in '94 and I knew when he was made the Vice Chair that it wouldn't be long before there was a Marine chairman. While the Chairman has to be impartial to all 4 services (Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force), I think that with a Marine in the hot seat that the Corps will benefit in ways we can't imagine yet.

As visitors to my office at home will know I'll be proud to change the title card under General Pace's photograph on my wall from Vice Chairman to Chairman. I've sent my formal congratulations to General Pace, now you can too with this form. Any questions you have can be posted on the comments underneath, I'll answer all.