In ceremony, Pace hands over chairmanship

FORT MYER, Va., Oct. 2 (UPI) -- In a farewell ceremony in Virginia for retired Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called for reasoned discourse.

In a ceremony for Pace to turn the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff over to Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, the retired general after more than 40 years of service said the United States is well-served by opposing views but that reasoned discourse will allow American democracy to grow and flourish and that civil dialogue “allows people to argue on the merits of what they believe and to understand that what they believe is part of the answer,” Pace said, in a statement.

Pace, who was not asked to serve a second term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for the willingness to cooperate in challenging times, according to the American Forces Press Service.

“What worries me is that in some instances right now we have individuals who are more interested in making somebody else look bad than they are in finding the right solution,” Pace said. “They are more interested in letting their personal venom come forward instead of talking about how do we get from where we are to where we need to be.”

The general then made an effort to affirm the Bush administration goals in the war on terror and that Pace sees the current dialogue on the war on terror not about voting the country out of the war.

“We have an enemy who has declared war on us. We are in a war,” Pace said. “They want to stop us from living the way we want to live our lives. So the dialogue is not about are we in a war, but how and where and when to best fight that war to preserve our freedom and to preserve our way of life.”