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A new, candid voice on war

The incoming head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the war is distracting the U.S.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 1, 2007

WASHINGTON - Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is troubled by the Iraq war. He thinks it has become such a consuming focus of U.S. attention that it may be overstretching the military and distracting the nation from other threats.

When he steps into his new office in Room 2E676 at the Pentagon today, replacing Marine Gen. Peter Pace as the senior military adviser to the president and the defense secretary, Mullen already will be on record expressing his war worries with an unusual degree of candor.

"I understand the frustration over the war. I share it," he said at his Senate confirmation hearing July 31. It weighs heavily on the minds of people in the United States, he said, and "it weighs heavily on mine."

As evidence of his focus on Iraq, Mullen has told Congress that he intends to travel to Baghdad immediately after he takes over so he can see firsthand how the war effort is going.

Mullen, 60, was Defense Secretary Robert Gates' choice to replace Pace, who had been vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs when the Iraq invasion was launched in 2003.

Pace has been criticized by some for not speaking up more forcefully on the conduct of the war after he became chairman in October 2005. In June, Gates announced that Pace would retire rather than serve a second term as chairman - not because of his performance in the job but because of political heat over the war.

Adm. Gregory Johnson, who retired from the Navy in December 2004 and has known Mullen for 20 years, said he believes Mullen will find ways to ensure that his views on the war are heard clearly.

"He is a sophisticated Washington player," Johnson said. "He knows how to operate in that environment, so I think he will be greatly advantaged" in the war councils.

Coming in as Gates' choice to provide military advice gives Mullen "an incredibly strong hand," Johnson said. "He will play it adroitly and in a very sophisticated manner," to the advantage of the military.

As the chief of naval operations for the past two years, Mullen had a lesser role in the conduct of the war, given that most of the fighting is done by soldiers and Marines. Even so, he has let it be known that he is troubled by the broader effects of an escalating military commitment in Iraq.

"I worry about the toll this pace of operations is taking on (the troops), our equipment and on our ability to respond to other crises and contingencies," Mullen told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Mullen also has emphasized his concern that strains from the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may detract from the country's ability to handle threats elsewhere.

Mullen will be the first admiral to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs since Adm. William Crowe Jr., who held the job from 1985-89, and only the fourth since the post was created in 1949. The other two were Adm. Arthur Radford, 1953-57, and Adm. Thomas Moorer, 1970-74.

Fast facts

Michael Glenn Mullen

Age: 60; born Oct. 4, 1946.

Education: U.S. Naval Academy, Naval Postgraduate School and Harvard Business School.

Experience: Commanded three ships and the USS George Washington carrier battle group; commander, U.S. Second Fleet and commander, NATO Striking Fleet Atlantic; deputy chief of Naval Operations for Resources; vice chief of Naval Operations and later chief of Naval Operations; commander, Allied Joint Force Command.

Family: Wife, Deborah; two sons, Jack and Michael.

[Last modified October 1, 2007, 00:13:26]