The Shame of the U.S. Senate by Chuck Coulson, 6/28/07

From historical mail files. Bruce

CHUCK COULSON'S VIEW OF GEN. PETER PACE

Breakpoint with Chuck Colson

I have what some might consider the macabre habit of reading the casualty
reports from Iraq every day in the New York Times. This may reflect the
fact that I served in the military or that I worked in the White House
during Vietnam .

But there's one name that hasn't yet appeared in the casualty reports: the
name of General Peter Pace, the first Marine-and I say this with pride as a
former Marine-to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Why am I looking for Pace's name on the casualty list? His distinguished
military career was recently ended by the crudest kind of politics.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared Pace, a four-star Marine general
with 48 military decorations on his chest, to be "incompetent."
What incredible effrontery. Reid-who never wore the uniform-could have
said he didn't agree with Pace's decisions or with the politically
unpopular war in Iraq . He could have said he disliked the way Pace
executed his responsibilities in advising the President.
But incompetent?

This kind of public disparagement of a military hero is disgraceful.
But Pace's career didn't end merely because of Reid's shoddy remarks. Pace,
a faithful Catholic, also offended the secular god of Tolerance. He had the
audacity to say that he believed sex outside of marriage was wrong, whether
homosexual or heterosexual.

The New York Times instantly declared him a bigot. The rest of the media
pack followed suit; few defended him. We are in real trouble, folks, if
America 's number one military officer cannot defend the proposition that
the military should exemplify high moral standards.

President Bush decided not to send Pace's nomination up for the customary
second term as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Why not? Not because Peter
Pace is incompetent; he was, after all, roundly commended by the President
and Defense Secretary Gates.

Gates recommended against Pace's re-nomination, and the President agreed,
because his confirmation would have been subjected to Senate
hearings-hearings that would have been grossly politicized.
Can you see the general sitting before a battery of senators
cross-examining him, in front of the cameras, on whether he discriminated
against homosexuals? Imagine the members of the Armed Services
Committee-most of whom never served in the military-grilling Pace on
whether his Catholic faith influenced his standards of prudery. At least
two presidential candidates serve on this committee. The hearings would
have been a political circus.

It would also have been open season on second-guessing the war at the very
moment our troops are in an offensive posture, chasing al Qaeda. The
television reports, which our troops in the field see online, would have
shown our so-called leaders berating the military and calling the cause in
Iraq futile. They would have been demoralizing, to say the least.
But to our Senate leaders, the welfare of our soldiers is secondary to
worshipping the secular god of Tolerance and raw politics; thus they have
in effect drummed out of the military one of the most honorable public
servants I've ever known.

We should mourn the fact that we have lost the services of this decorated
and principled man. And we should mourn the loss of honor, duty, and
common decency among our nation's leaders.

P.S. Pardon my vulgarity, but Harry Reid wouldn't make a pimple on a good
Marine's ass!