The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs recently “clarified” a statement that he made to the Chicago Tribune regarding the immorality of homosexual behavior. General Peter Pace suggested that he should have focused his comments more on the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy,” rather than on his personal beliefs about morality. While I certainly belive that the General is entitled to express his opinion, my question about the matter is whether a sitting Chairman of the JCS should be throwing what amounts to a political bomb in the middle of a war. Were this a matter of discussing policy during peacetime, then I think the stakes would be much lower and the Chairman should feel obligated to comment. In wartime, however, it is the responsibility of all serving military personnel to focus entirely on the successful prosecution of that war to the exclusion of all else. Engaging in political sideshows is not only disruptive to the conduct of the war, but also demonstrative of very poor judgement. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not demanding that General Pace be removed, but I feel that either the President or SECDEF needs to keep a much tighter leash on things over at the Pentagon. Now, perhaps this was merely a response to former Chairman John Shalikashvili’s recent statement that the military should abandon “don’t ask, don’t tell” and accept anyone willing to serve, but if so that response is better handled by the civilians in office, not the military. The military is not a political tool and should not be allowed to become one by either its members or by the civilian leadership that it answers to.
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I think he would have been taken to task from the same quarters if he had answered, “no comment.”
General Pace is certainly entitled to his opinion, but also to keep his mouth shut about his opinion when he’s in uniform and giving an interview.
Pace should have kept his opinion to himself. I think TPO makes the right distinction between civilian and military functions. While Pace is certainly entitled to his opinion, throwing it out there only serves to distract from the military mission at hand. The reason he’s not assigned political tasks is because that’s not his job. Anything that unnecessarily distracts from his job is a bad thing.
Yep, more military personnel need to learn this key lesson. When you are in a high profile position, it’s just like being in elected office. Any comments you make are absolutely subject to intense media scrutiny. It’s not like this is a new phenomenon either. This type of thing has been going on since at least the US Civil War and certainly since World War 2 (Patton, among others, had a real problem keeping his mouth shut in front of the press).
Exactly. General Pace and the other JCS members need to be focused on finishing Iraq and planning for the next phase of the GWOT, not distracted by media frenzies and potential Congressional hearing sideshows resulting from those frenzies. It almost seems like the JCS need to get themselves a publicist.