Pete the Parrot Departs

Good riddance to the last of the Rumsfeld generals.

By Fred Kaplan
Posted Friday, Oct. 5, 2007, at 6:21 PM ET

Somehow I missed Gen. Peter Pace's Oct. 1 farewell speech at the Fort Myer parade ground, replete with a "full honor review" and four fighter jets streaking overhead. The New York Times didn't cover it, except in a photo caption. The Pentagon's Web site didn't bother transcribing his address, though it did post the introductory remarks by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

And yet Pace's departure was a significant event because it marked the end, finally, of the Donald Rumsfeld era. Pace was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff the last two years. Gates decided not to renew the general's term, despite Pace's request for another. The public rationale was that Gates wanted to avoid "very contentious" confirmation hearings. There's clearly something to this. Not only was Pace the last senior official still associated with early decisions on the war (he was the JCS vice chairman at the time of the invasion), he also recently said in public that gays shouldn't be in the military because homosexual acts were "immoral."