Posted on 06/15/2007 10:54:24 AM PDT by AlbertoMG
...I will tell you the truth as I know it, and that is around the middle of May, within a day or two of the Secretary learning from certain members of Congress that there may be a problem to renominate me, he brought me in the office and sat me down and said “Pete, this is what’s happening. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at tank.nationalreview.com ...
A Marine’s MARINE!
Gen. Peter Pace Speaks [W. Thomas Smith Jr.]
Last night, during a Q&A following remarks by Gen. Peter Pace at The Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, the general was asked the following question:
My question is about what many folks at the reception tonight viewed as the very disappointing news about your replacement as chairman. I wonder why you believe that is happening, and what are your thoughts about the process by which we choose the nation’s top military uniformed officer?
General Pace responds:
I will tell you the truth as I know it, and that is around the middle of May, within a day or two of the Secretary learning from certain members of Congress that there may be a problem to renominate me, he brought me in the office and sat me down and said “Pete, this is what’s happening. I want to renominate 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.
He and I sat down, and I said “I’m a Marine…If you want me to go forward with the confirmation process, I’m all for it.”
I also told him that what he needed to do, in my opinion, was what was best for the institution, and whatever he and the president decided was going to be best for the institution was what Pete Pace was going to do. Oh and by the way, I can read the Constitution, which says the president gets to nominate and the Senate gets to confirm, or not, and neither one of those two things is going to happen, therefore I’m not staying.
One thing that was discussed was whether or not I should just voluntarily retire and take the issue off the table. I said I could not do that for one very fundamental reason and that is that PFC Pace in Baghdad should not think – ever – that his chairman, whoever that person is, could have stayed in the battle and voluntarily walked off the battlefield. That is unacceptable as a leadership thing in my mind.
So I elected not to submit my request for retirement until after it was publicly known that I was no longer going to be renominated.
That is very important to me. The other part that is important to me is personal. The first piece holds true for anybody in this position – anybody.
The other piece for me personally was that some 40 years ago I left some guys on the battlefield in Vietnam who lost their lives following 2nd Lt. Pace. And I promised myself then that I will serve this country until I was no longer needed — that it’s not my decision. I need to be told that I’m done.
I’ve been told I’m done.
I will run through the finish line on 1 October, and when I run through the finish line I will have met the mission I set for myself.
.
The Bush administration and the President strike out again. WHY didn’t they fight for this guy. What a bunch of candy asses we have in this administration and that includes W. He takes right after his father! I didn’t used to think so but I do now!
Wasn’t Gen Pace from NJ? Lord knows we need him to run for the Senate if he can from NJ.
Born in Brooklyn, raised in Teaneck, New Jersey.
One can only wish and pray.
Pace is a Marine, not a soldier. His ID card, 40 years of service and tombstone, will, make that important distinction.
The Gay Mafia wins again.
How about Nevada. There is pos senator there who needs to be replaced by a loyal American.
Pace just has too much initiative, guts, and intelligence for this administration to deal with. They’d prefer someone more like them — conciliatory, politically correct, and fearful to the point of paralysis about the possible reaction of “the Arab street.”
General Pete Pace is a Marine’s Marine.
Fair winds and following seas, sir!
Semper Fidelis,
fontman
I don’t agree I think the President listened to his generals and had to deal with micromanaging by idiots in congress. No other President has had the roadblocks thrown in front of him by congress press and crooked heads of state like this man has. He’s had to take congresses ridiculous interference in order to maintain funding.
If you're right, we're going to lose.
God love him....a man of integrity.
Carolyn
He could run against Lautenberg next year.
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