It's Monday morning, and even though my attitude is pretty good, especially after having a nice Father's Day yesterday with our family cooking and eating burgers, dogs, "tater" salad, baked beans and corn-on-the-cob, I feel a need to "vent" a bit, so I figured I might as well do it here.
The manner in which the Pentagon (and White House indirectly) handled the announcement about replacing the present Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, was ill advised. The administration said (through the Secretary of Defense) they did not want to have to go through the "pain" of having to look back at why decisions about the war were made, and felt that would negatively affect the confirmation hearing of General Pace. So, they decided not to re-nominate him. Later, we learned that the Secretary of Defense had asked General Pace to resign. To his personal credit, as well as to the United States Marine Corps, General Pace said no way would he voluntarily leave the battlefield with troops still deployed. He apparently said something to the effect…"if you don't want to re-nominate me for the position, then go ahead and make that announcement, but I'm not voluntarily leaving otherwise." There is no question in my mind that this whole deal was politically motivated and thus ill advised.
Over the past two years, I have watched with sadness at how badly things have been handled in relation to the war by politicians in Washington DC. Neither the White House nor Congress have done much if anything to add "gold stars" to their respective report cards. I agreed that it was time for Secretary Rumsfeld to step down when he did, but everyone else who is associated with his term in office ought not be discarded in the same way, just because of "politics".
I guess the intent of the Administration is to try to just keep wiping the slate clean, whenever it gets tarnished in some way. What has happened to learning from our mistakes and then adapting in new directions? This "road to war" does have an end, even though no one has thus far found a way to identify it on a map. Maybe it's time for a new map.
