By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 1, 2007 4:44 PM

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned today that the debate over the Iraq war was being distorted by "personal venom" and said the United States cannot "vote our way out" of the war.

Meanwhile, Pace's successor, Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, who was sworn in today as the new chairman, addressed a different concern about unexpected conflicts ahead. "The fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan will one day end," he said. "We must be ready for who and what comes after."

As antiwar protesters demonstrated at the gate of Fort Myer, where the change-of-command ceremony took place, Pace said that democracy is strengthened by divergent views discussed "in a civil manner."

But, he said, "what worries me is that in some instances right now we have individuals who are more interested in making somebody else look bad than they are in finding the right solution. They are more interested in letting their personal venom come forward instead of talking about how do we get from where we are to where we need to be."

Pace, 61, who served for two years as chairman and four years as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was not renominated by President Bush for a second two-year term. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Pace would have faced a "contentious" confirmation hearing in the Senate.

Bush, in remarks at the ceremony, praised Pace for bringing "dignity to a political process that might have worn down a lesser man."

On the final day of his 40-year military career, Pace appeared to address critics in Congress and elsewhere.

"This dialogue is not about 'Can we vote our way out of a war?' We have an enemy who has declared war on us. We are in a war," he said. "So the dialogue is not about 'Are we in a war?' but how and where and when to best fight that war to preserve our freedom."

Gates hailed Pace's service, beginning as a Marine platoon leader during the battle for the Vietnamese city of Hue in 1968, when several men under Pace lost their lives.

"Your debt has been more than repaid," Gates said.

Mullen, a native of Los Angeles and a Naval Academy graduate whose last job was chief of naval operations, spoke of the stress on American ground forces and the importance of striking a balance between U.S. security interests in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the rest of the world.

"I'm . . . eager to work closely with our service chiefs, our combatant commanders, as together we develop and execute a strategy to support our national interests in the Middle East; we reset, reconstitute and revitalize our armed forces, especially our ground forces; and we properly balance our risks around the globe," Mullen said.