Archive for January 8th, 2009

Forty Years of Leadership (06/22/2007)

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

As a fresh-faced rifle platoon leader in February 1968, second Lieutenant Peter Pace came across as a rather tentative leader. Quiet and unassuming, Pace was dropped into Hue City (the South Vietnam city serving as ground zero for the Tet Offensive), and at first, his men didn’t quite know what to make of him.

“I remember early on the guys were filling sandbags for a position and I-trying to find my way as a new leader-went down and started filling sandbags with them,” Pace recalled in a 2004 interview with American Forces Press Service. “One of the squad leaders said to me, ‘Lieutenant, we’ve got this. We need you to be thinking about the next patrol or the next thing that we have to do. We can do the sandbags. We need you to do what you’re supposed to do.’”

It was perhaps the last time that Pace appeared unsure of his duties as a military leader. Peter Pace-known in Pentagon circles as “Perfect Pete” for his immaculate military bearing-went on to become a four-star General, then, in 2005, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces. As chairman, Pace became an effective advocate for President Bush’s military policies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last week, however, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that he would not be recommending Pace for a second two-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Though Secretary Gates insisted Pace’s termination had “absolutely nothing to do” with his performance (in fact, Gates told Pace that he would have liked to have re-nominated him), Gates said, “I have decided that at this moment in our history, the nation, our men and women in uniform and Gen. Pace himself would not be well-served by a divisive ordeal in selecting the next chairman.”

The question is: why? Why has the Bush Administration taken the nearly unprecedented step of firing Pace after only two years, making his the shortest chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in over 40 years?

There is a rumor circulating that the administration’s refusal to re-nominate Pace stemmed from his recent remarks about homosexuality.

What did he say that was so offensive?

Pace-committing the only sin left in Washington, D.C., that is, making a personal moral judgment about sexual conduct-revealed that it was his personal belief that homosexual acts are-wait for it-”immoral.” It was rumored that some Democrats were prepared to make Pace’s remarks an “issue” had he been re-nominated, and that this fueled the administration’s decision to dismiss him. I pray that Pace’s comments did not enter into the administration’s calculus. Either way, the furor that followed Pace’s remarks last spring proves that even at a time when cheating politicians and congressional scandals are so
commonplace as to become cliché, political correctness rules the day.

Speculation aside, it’s clear the administration dismissed Pace because it feared a fierce confirmation battle. In fact, Pace has since said he was urged to retire months ago in order to, as Pace recalls, “take the issue off the table.” It was assumed that Senate Armed Forces Committee Democrats were preparing to use Pace’s confirmation hearings as an opportunity to dredge up old battles, and that Gates therefore urged the president to dismiss Pace in order to avoid “contentious confirmation hearings,” which, according to Gates, would not be in “the best interests of the country.” A defense official close to the
debate went further, telling the Washington Times that, “the administration’s view was that this would not be helpful to protect America’s security.”

But these excuses ring hollow. If Gates and President Bush truly considered Pace the best man to lead the military, why would they back down from a fight, especially given the administration’s tendency to stand up for its high-ranking appointees (such as Attorney General Gonzales) and policy priorities (such as “comprehensive” immigration reform)?

Moreover, how does jettisoning General Pace make the politics of Iraq any less “contentious”? Pace’s dismissal won’t assuage the anti-war set. Rather, it will embolden congressional liberals to step up efforts to thwart the administration’s Iraq policies.

But, the manner in which General Pace left his position as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff reveals as much about the man as it does about conditions on Capital Hill.

When notified that he would not be re-nominated for a second two-year term, Pace was given the opportunity to resign so as to avoid making it look as though he had been fired. But Pace refused, and later explained, “…I could not do that for one very fundamental reason, and that is that [a service member] in Baghdad should not think - ever - that his chairman, whoever that person is, could have stayed in the battle and voluntarily walked off the battlefield. …That is unacceptable as a leadership thing in my mind.”

Pace’s decision derived in part from his experiences forty years ago in Vietnam when, according to Pace, he “left some guys on the battlefield in Vietnam who lost their lives following 2nd Lt. Pace. And I promised myself then that I will serve this country until I was no longer needed - that it’s not my decision. I need to be told that I’m done.”

In a recent interview about his career, Pace, with the humility that comes with four decades as a Marine, said, “If you think you’re a good leader, then you’re probably not.” Though Pace, the first Marine Corps officer to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, may not consider himself a good leader, he is a great credit to the United States Armed Forces, and an honorable example for the men and women who have put their lives on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers who have expected, needed and received great leadership from “Perfect Pete.”

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A ‘lost boy’ finds his way (05/21/2008)

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

Upon receiving his college diploma on April 26, Peter Kuch felt many of the emotions new college graduates feel: joy, pride and hope for a bright future. But for Mr. Kuch, who graduated from Bryant & Stratton College in Syracuse, N.Y., the day meant much more. It was, in his words, “truly historic.”

That’s because Mr. Kuch’s graduation marked 25 years — to the day — since a day that foreshadowed a future devoid of all joy, pride and hope for him, his family and countrymen.

Peter Kuch (pronounced “Kush”) is one of about 4,000 Sudanese “lost boys” living in the United States. “Lost boys” is the name given by aid organizations to the more than 27,000 boys displaced or orphaned during the Second Sudanese Civil War.

The first inklings of that war began in 1983, when Sudanese President Gaafar Nimeiry imposed Shariah law throughout Sudan, including upon the mostly Christian and Animist citizens of its oil-producing south.

On April 26, 1983, to ensure a wider application of Shariah, Mr. Nimeiry declared a “state of emergency,” under which most constitutionally guaranteed rights were suspended in the south.

The declaration prompted formation of southern Sudan’s People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and triggered a two-decade civil war during which roughly 2.2 million civilians died, one of the highest civilian death tolls of any war since World War II.

It took a couple years for government militias to set their sights on Mr. Kuch’s hometown of Bor, on the east bank of the Nile River. “I remember waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of gunfire,” Mr. Kuch recalled in a recent interview. “My family decided to run in different directions, hoping that they would be safe.”

Many of Peter’s friends and family members were killed, and many who survived fled, leaving Mr. Kuch, at age of 7 or 8 (Peter, like many “lost boys,” does not know his exact age), to begin the 600-mile trek (roughly the distance between Boston and Richmond) to Ethiopia in hopes of reaching a refugee camp. The conditions were jaw-dropping.

“Over the three weeks to a month that it took us to get there, I remember a lot of the other children dying. Since we weren’t carrying any food with us, a lot of the children died from hunger and thirst. Some of us ate wild leaves, though we did not know whether they were poisonous, and some of us drank our own urine if we were lucky to happen to produce any urine because we all were dehydrated. Some of us were attacked by wild animals, and some of the children drowned trying to swim across rivers. Several children just gave up and left the group, and others caught epidemic diseases.”

Thousands of children died en route to Ethiopia. Those who survived, including Mr. Kuch, spent four years at a squalid refugee camp before another civil war forced them to run for their lives. Mr. Kuch then began another nearly yearlong odyssey to Kenya.

Dodging bombs and gunfire from Khartoum’s Islamist armies, Mr. Kuch was one of fewer than half of the “lost boys” who made it to refugee camps in Kenya, where he spent the next 10 years on the edge of life, yearning for a chance to learn, to eat and to live in freedom.

That chance came in 2003 when, following a lengthy interview process, Mr. Kuch was selected by the U.S. government as one of 4,000 “lost boys” to move to America. He settled in Syracuse, N.Y., where he quickly secured a job and later enrolled in Byrant & Stratton College’s Human Resources program.

Since coming to America, Peter has devoted much of his free time to informing Americans about the plight of his people. He has testified before Congress and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and speaks at high schools, colleges and churches, not only about the millions still displaced by Sudan’s civil war but also about the ongoing genocide in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

According to Mr. Kuch, education is the next war in Sudan. “When the Arabs were in power, people were not allowed to get an education unless they became Muslim and took Muslim names. … I would love to go back, it’s one of the reasons I want to get my education.”

Through it all, Mr. Kuch’s Christian faith has remained strong. “My faith in God plays a great role in my life and my ability to persevere in everything I have gone through. I had a strong faith in God that one day He will bring us out like He did to the people of Israel. My faith kept me going.”

Peter’s faith also informed his recent decision to join the U.S. Army in order, in his words, “to defend this great nation with all my heart.”

It might seem paradoxical for one of the “lost boys,” who experts say are the most badly war-traumatized children ever examined, to aspire to become a soldier. Mr. Kuch says, “when I speak about joining the military I have people asking why I want to go, as I have been through a lot already. My answer to them is always that I love this country and I want to do my part in this critical time of the war.”

Mr. Kuch also recognizes Islamic extremism, the enemy responsible for the slaughter of his people and his separation from his family, as the same enemy that attacked America on Sept. 11, 2001, and the same enemy America is fighting today in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As Mr. Kuch prepares to leave for basic training in Fort Jackson, S.C., on June 13, he looks forward to serving his country in order, as he says, “to give back to a country that has given me so much.” And to help others experience the feelings of joy, pride and hope for a bright future only freedom can bring.

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