Bush has fired another of his generals. This time it's Marine General Peter Pace, head of the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff (our nation's top military officer).
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said he will not re-appoint Pace to a second term as head of the Joint Chiefs. Instead, he will nominate Navy Admiral Mike Mullen to replace him. The Bush administration believed that re-appointing Pace would give rise to a contentious debate in Congress about the conduct of the war in Iraq.
This was a silly reason to replace Pace. Either he was doing a good job or he was not, but to replace him to avoid an argument with Congress is just wrong. It also won't work.
I don't think Congress will be fooled by this move. They know that Pace is not the one to be blamed for the failures in Iraq (or any of our other military leaders for that matter).
The Iraq war should never have happened, but since it's inception it has been grossly mishandled. But it wasn't the military that mishandled it -- it was Bush and Cheney. They totally misread the situation, they didn't send nearly enough troops to handle the situation, and they bungled the effort to rebuild Iraq.
Bush and Cheney must accept ALL of the blame for the blunder in Iraq. It is time they stopped firing and scapegoating our top military officers in an attempt to shift the blame. Both Congress and the American people know the administration is to blame.
Appointing a new head of the Joint Chiefs will do nothing to improve the disastrous Iraqi occupation. At this point, there is only one thing that will make the situation in Iraq better for America, and that is to bring our troops home -- immediately.
