An Officer I Knew as an NROTC Midshipman

In 1997 I attended college as a freshman at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. While in school at Northwestern, I had joined the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC). It was a great way to get a scholarship, and I learned some valuable lessons.

One of the issues I wrestled with that year was my concern that the United States military was spread too thin in many different countries. I felt that our troops were vulnerable insofar as we were overseas in the Middle East, essentially alone, trying to accomplish goals that the general public did not seem to understand or much care for.

During that year we had several guest speakers, mostly Navy and Marine Corps officers, who briefed us on everything from ethics to U.S. foreign policy. Marine Corps Colonel Peter Pace was one of those speakers. He was already a distinguished officer at that time, and we were honored to have him. He was by far the highest-ranking individual to address us.

At the end of Colonel Pace's lecture I nervously raised my hand and explained what was troubling me. This being the time period of troubles in the Persian Gulf, I asked him why we were in Iraq and whether we could be successful there. I even told him frankly that I questioned our intervention in that country at all.

Colonel Pace was not offended by my statement. To the contrary, he gave me a very genuine response. He actually used the phrase "policing the world" in his answer. Some would say we are policing the world, he said. But he pointed out to me that we should also be mindful of the leadership needs of the troops who were already stationed there.

I have recently been following Colonel Pace's career as he was selected as Vice Chairman and then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2005. This is the highest position a military officer can achieve in the United States, a direct advisorship to the President and Secretary of Defense.

So I was disappointed to see him dismissed a couple of weeks ago by Bush's new Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates. In a Huffington Post story printed on June 15 Pace came out publicly as saying he did not want to resign.

His exact words were that no soldier overseas should think that his leader "voluntarily walked off the battlefield." "That is unacceptable as a leadership thing, in my mind," he said.

That's the same Colonel Pace that I knew in 1997. He introduced me to the concept that even though a policy might be wrong, a leader still has a moral responsibility to his subordinates.

So now I question whether the Bush Administration has learned that lesson. Did they get rid of Chairman Pace because they truly felt Admiral Michael Mullen (his replacement) was the best man for the job, the best man to bear responsibility for the well-being of the thousands of troops stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere?

Or was Chairman Pace asked to step down for political motives? In a news story I published on this topic on Associated Content, I mentioned Pace's remarks on homosexuality earlier this year. He told a reporter that homosexuality was "immoral," which was quickly turned into a controversy. This may be one reason he was dismissed.

Another reason may be the unpopularity of the Iraq War. According to the most recent polls, 52% of Americans now believes the war has not made us safer. Stop and think about that for a moment. Making us safer from terrorists is the only justification of the war that Bush has provided us with!

Pace has been involved in the war as Chairman and Vice Chairman from the very beginning. This may be an even stronger reason to get rid of him, from Bush's perspective.

President Bush himself, of course we know, believes that homosexuality is immoral. He simply doesn't state it in so many words. And, as the Commander-in-Chief of the United States, he also bears greater responsibility for the Iraq War than does General Pace.

But Bush also knows how politically unpopular the war has become. Rather than rethinking troop withdrawal or formulating a successful plan for rebuilding, he spends his time covering his tracks. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is gone, replaced by Gates, who in turn has now fired Pace.

My hat is off to General Pace, but my skepticism is increased elsewhere. This Administration continues its transparent game of sacrificing leaders to cover its tracks, without taking substantive steps to end the war or make America safer from terrorists.