Pete Pace's defense of Rummy; he had no choice

Generals Break With Tradition Over Rumsfeld - New York Times:

"Critics of Mr. Rumsfeld, who agree with the former generals who have derided him as wrongheaded and arrogant, may see General Pace's endorsement as fulsome flattery. After all, some officers contend that the 73-year-old defense secretary has promoted top leaders based largely on their fealty to him, his management of the war in Iraq and his ambitious plan to remake the military.

But the comments by General Pace of the Marines were more than a public plug for a boss under fire. Scholars who study the armed forces say they were a public restatement of a bedrock principle of American governance: civilian control of the military.

'This is what the chairman of the Joint Chiefs is expected to do by tradition and law,' said Dennis E. Showalter, a military historian at Colorado College who has taught at the Air Force Academy and West Point. Short of submitting his own resignation, General Pace had little choice but to offer a public show of support, Mr. Showalter said."