Gates May Have Done Something Right

Switching course, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Friday he has recommended Adm. Mike Mullen, currently chief of naval operations, to replace Gen. Peter Pace as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Gates said he had originally intended to seek another two-year term for Pace, but concluded that would have resulted in a divisive Senate confirmation focusing on the Iraq War.
"It would be a backward looking and very contentious process," Gates said at a Pentagon news conference.
Pace has been either chairman or vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs for the past six years—a period that covers the Iraq war.

I thought General Pace did as well as could be expected "given the givens."
But it's the vice-chairman postions which had to be shuffled that makes this reasonably acceptable:

He put Marine General James Cartwright in as one of the vice-chairmans.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8PKQOU02&show_article=1