The Quiet Wisdom of Apolitical Adm. Mike Mullen

This was another year of the vanishing center in America. Despite the election of a president who promised to govern across party and racial lines, partisan division seemed to engulf nearly every important institution and topic - with one notable exception, and that was the U.S. military. So at year's end, I want to examine the person who came to symbolize the military's apolitical unity, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A year from now, I'd love to be able to say there are more Mullens in our national life and fewer Rush Limbaughs.

Mullen managed the military's transition from George W. Bush to Barack Obama, from surging in Iraq to withdrawing U.S. troops. He worked with the new president while Obama painstakingly made the decision to escalate in Afghanistan. Through it all, Mullen managed to remain out of the limelight most of the time, which is where a military leader ought to be. Mullen isn't a flashy operator. He botches his syntax, and he doesn't always finish his sentences. A friend of Mullen's likens him to the actor Walter Matthau - a big man with a meaty face; fit, but slightly rumpled; at once wry and grandfatherly...

More at The Washington Post.