General Pace pulls no punches

 


Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace, the principal military advisor to the president and the secretary of defense spoke about the use of white phosphorous today. Pace is the 1st Marine officer to hold the post, it was of course the Marines who took and re-took Fallujah. Pace succeeded USAF General Richard Myers who was the guy who spent the morning of September 11th 2001 shooting the breeze with Congressman McClelland whilst New York burned the Pentagon blazed across the Potomac River , apparently out of sight of TV, telephones, pagers, staff etc.,

Pace described it as a "legitimate tool of the military", used to illuminate targets and create smokescreens. "It is not a chemical weapon. It is an incendiary. And it is well within the law of war to use those weapons as they're being used, for marking and for screening," he said.

"A bullet goes through skin even faster than white phosphorus does," Gen Pace said.
"So I would rather have the proper instrument applied at the proper time, as precisely as possible, to get the job done, in a way that kills as many of the bad guys as possible and does as little collateral damage as possible.
"That is just the nature of warfare."

At a press conference on 26th November given by Donald Rumsfeld Pave publicly disagreed with his boss. UPI's Pam Hess asked about torture by Iraqi authorities, and Rumsfeld replied that "obviously, the United States does not have a responsibility" other than to voice disapproval. Pace interjected and said, "It is the absolute responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene, to stop it."

Rumsfeld disagreed : "I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it."

Pace stated calmly , but firmly, "If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it."