So Long, Gen. Pace

Gen. Peter Pace will not be nominated for a second term as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Everybody is being patronizing to a fault -- saying that, regrettably, the re-confirmation process would have been too divisive.

Well of course it would have been divisive, and for good reason. Recall that Gen. Pace smeared thousands of gay and lesbian American servicemen last March when he called their behavior "immoral." The Bush administration won't say it, but Pace's anti-gay comments were probably the straw that broke the camel's back here. The end of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is inevitable in the next decade. The last thing we need is someone who thinks the policy is too inclusive.

So how does Pace's replacement, Admiral Michael C. Mullen, feel about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell?" He'll need to be pressed on the question, but here's what he had to say on April 3 at the Brookings Institute:

If it's time to revisit that policy, the American people I believe -- and we live in a country -- the American people ought to raise that issue and we'll have the debate. As a member of the Joint Chiefs and obviously the head of one of the services, I will contribute to that and give my best military advice based on what -- the debate that's going on, and if it changes, it changes.

"If it changes, it changes" eh? An ambivalent answer but an interesting one, and I'll take it over the moralist slurs of his predecessor.