Public Diplomacy Indeed

I have recently been following the tweets of Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.  It turns out he has a blog as well.  This is what he says after a visit to the Middle East about addressing the threat of Iran and nuclear proliferation.

we owe the Secretary and the President a range of options for this threat. We owe the American people our readiness. But as I have said many times, I worry a lot about the unintended consequences of any sort of military action. For now, the diplomatic and economic levers of international power ought to be the levers first pulled. Indeed, I would hope they are always and consistently pulled.
No strike, however effective, will be in and of itself decisive.

 Too bad he did not have the big seat in 2003.  Of course, Rumsfeld selected the CJCS and being independent and skeptical of the use of force and thinking about unintended consequences would have disqualified Mullen. 

I was originally posting about his tweet and his blog just to note that he has both (along with facebook and other linkslisted in his blog!) and then found this opinion on Iran.  I really like the Gates/Mullen team.  What can I say?  I am a sucker for pragmatism by the folks who are responsible for the military.  Ideology or bureaucratic gamesmanship (depending on your view of Rummy) is so yesterday..