Pentagon Picks Admiral To Head Joint Chiefs Of Staff

Friday, June 8th 2007, 12:13 pm

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Switching course, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Friday he has recommended Adm. Mike Mullen, currently chief of naval operations, to replace Gen. Peter Pace as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Gates said he had originally intended to seek another two-year term for Pace, but concluded that would have resulted in a divisive Senate confirmation focusing on the Iraq War.

``It would be a backward looking and very contentious process,'' Gates said at a Pentagon news conference.

Pace has been either chairman or vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs for the past six years _ a period that covers the Iraq war.

But Gates said that after consulting with senators in both parties, he had concluded that ``the focus of his conformation process would have been on the past and not on the future.''

Gates said that Mullen has the ``vision strategic insight and integrity to lead America's armed forces.''

At the same time, he conceded he wished ``it were not necessary to make a decision like this.''

As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for two years, and vice chairman for the previous four, Pace has been involved in all of the key decisions leading to the invasion of Iraq, and the planning for the post-Saddam Hussein era.

The war, now in its fifth year, has claimed the lives of more than 3,500 U.S. troops, and has become intensely unpopular with the public.

Pace's current term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff expires on Sept. 30.