Pace: I was forced out

The departing chairman of the Joint Chiefs says it would have been wrong to leave voluntarily while there's a war on.

Published June 15, 2007 5:40PM (EDT)

Not that there was ever any doubt, but Gen. Peter Pace has just made it clear that it wasn't his choice not to serve a second term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"One thing that was discussed was whether or not I should just voluntarily retire and take the issue off the table," Pace said during a question-and-answer session at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va., Thursday evening. Pace said he rejected that idea because he wouldn't want the soldiers fighting in Iraq to think that their chairman "could have stayed in the battle and voluntarily walked off the battlefield."


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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