The Bush administration attempted to wipe the slate clean on the Iraq war on Friday and chart a new way forward with the surprise announcement that it was replacing General Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said he had reluctantly decided on the reshuffle -- despite his initial support for Pace -- to avoid a "divisive ordeal" at the Senate which would have had to approve an extension of the general's term.
"The focus of this confirmation process would have been on the past rather than on the future," Gates said at the press conference. "There was a very real prospect that the process would be quite contentious."
PHOTO: EPA
Gates said he had nominated Admiral Mike Mullen, who is currently chief of naval operations, to replace Pace.
In another house-cleaning move, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Edmund Gambastiani, also announced his retirement on Friday.
A career Marine, Pace has been at the center of military decision-making by the Bush administration on Afghanistan and Iraq for the last six years.
As vice chairman and then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he was a key architect of the 2003 invasion to remove former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, as well as the post-war planning.
The decision not to fight for Pace was seen as a sign of the administration's eagerness to open a new chapter in the Iraq war, and so help rebuild wavering Republican support for troop increases.
Gates denied any doubts about Pace's performance.
"I am disappointed that the circumstances make this kind of decision necessary," Gates said. "I wish that were not the case."
The secretary said the political figures he had conferred with were unanimous in their respect for Pace -- and unanimous in their feeling that a change in Pentagon leadership was needed.
It was also seen as an extraordinary retreat for an administration which had earlier prided itself on its resolve in pursuing policy matters, as well as loyalty to personnel. Gates told the press conference that conversations in recent weeks with both Republican and Democratic senators had convinced him that a confirmation process would have shone the spotlight on the prosecution of the war.
That spectacle could have proved devastating at a time when the White House is fighting hard to maintain Republican support for additional troops in Iraq. Republican leaders have warned the White House repeatedly that they need to see concrete results from the surge by September if they are to continue to justify their support to a war-weary public.
That task grew even more difficult in recent days as the death toll among US troops serving in Iraq reached a grim milestone of 3,500.
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