This was posted by DM at the Power Line Forum:
A class of senior Army War College officers (all of whom are either Iraq or Afghanistan combat veterans with multiple deployments) were taking part on a tour of Congress. All of this was officially approved and part of the Army War College curriculum.
The officers observing Congress hold multiple bronze stars between them; and other citations too numerous to mention.
Congressman Pete Stark observed them in the gallery, and below is his official letter of outrage.
Below is the text of a letter sent today to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates by Representative Pete Stark (D-CA), regarding the possible abuse of military officers’ time.
May 16, 2008Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) is the same liberal democrat who said that:
The Honorable Robert Gates
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301
Dear Secretary Gates:
Yesterday, while voting on the war supplemental spending bill in the House of Representatives, I couldn’t help but notice a contingent of approximately 20 flag rank Army officers sitting in the House Gallery watching the debate and vote for a couple of hours. I was looking from below so I thought they were Army, but there could have been other branches present.
It’s possible they were on leave time or vacation. If so, I obviously have no concern. However, if they were doing this on military time, I want an explanation of why they were there.
At a time when our nation is at war, our troops are over-extended, and the Administration is literally asking for emergency military spending, what good to the “war on terror” is having US Generals and other top ranked officers - who were likely accompanied by staff and escorted by their chauffeurs - spending hours sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives?
Please provide for me the name, rank, branch, and duties of each of these officers, as well as the number of additional staff and drivers that were used to facilitate their attendance yesterday. I would like this information by Monday, May 19th.
If they were here on official duty, this was an abhorrent misallocation of our military resources at a time of war.
Sincerely,
Pete Stark
CC: The Honorable Ike Skelton, Chairman, Committee on Armed Services
CC: The Honorable Jack Murtha, Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense
"US soldiers were getting their heads blown off for the President's amusement."
Stay classy, Democrats!
UPDATE: Jordan has a great comment below on Stark's rank ignorance of military missions, priorities, and the duties of officers.
UPDATE 2: It's not just written attacks-- Military personnel are also getting verbally attacked in Washington DC -Via Instapundit.
Douche of the year. I will not cry when Pete Stark leaves this earth. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteGood God. Who are these people and what are they doing in my government. He says they were all flag rank. Was it twenty Generals?
ReplyDeleteThis letter reveals Stark's rank ignorance of military missions, priorities, and the duties of officers, yes, in this tumultuous time of war. Of COURSE they would visit the Congress as part of an Army War College course or symposium.
Military aides and attaches serve in embassies around the world, and are often assigned to Congressmen and Senators as aides and liaison officers. Part of their training MUST include learning the mechanics, the nuts and bolts, of the military-political process.
I can't think of a more appropriate, more fitting occasion to observe this process in action than than the voting on the war funding bill. In fact, I would see it as negligent had an Army War College course for flag officers NOT included such a tour.
I don't know what committees Stark has served on, but individual officers are posted to their assignments according to what meets national requirements, and adjusted to their time in rank, military occupation (MOS), etc... These officers were assigned to the War College as part of DoD's careful maintenance of warfighting and national security responsibilities.
Stark seems to think you can just take 20 flag officers out of the visitor's gallery and plop them down into Iraq. Is he daffy?
That's not how it works. Leaders with knowledge and expertise in the upper levels of government have to be in the pipeline, and this is what courses and tours like these are -- the pipeline.
Generals don't live forever, they have to be replaced every once in a while. You want to prepare them for the duties and missions they might be assigned across the spectrum of military jobs -- from the political inside-the-beltway, to field command.
Stark's letter shows the danger of handing our government and national security policies over to the control of the Democrats. These people have no clue, and are led around by their rabid emotions.
This reflexive hatred of all this military (until you need them, of course) is insane, backwards, and self-destructive. But then, logic has never played a big part in the Dem Party's view of national security.
This is excellent fodder for campaigning against the Democrats this fall. Thanks, Pete Stark. You really stepped into it this time, and can blame no one but yourself.
I'd like to see how many earmarks, wasteful trips and wasted taxpayer time and money Pete Stark has overseen during his years "in service."
I take it you're upset, Jordan ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks- Great comment!
"Pete Stark". "Democrat". "From California".
ReplyDeleteWhat else do you need to know?
Just another train wreck, Move along, no need to rubber-neck.
No news here.
The whole tone of the letter was demanding and di you notice who is on the CC: list? Our friend jack Murtha.
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost those who wear the uniform of this country are citizens, just like everybody else and the last time I checked citizens are free to observe their government in action at any time.
Does Mr Stark demand the same information when it is members of Code Pink or even those wannabee communists from IVAW?
To lash out in such a demanding and arrogant manner is despicable.
Stay classy Dems and CA you are well represented in the house.
Wow .... they let just about anyone be a Congressman. Someone oughta counsel at least a few libs (in the interest of humanity). To mebbe calm down just a leetle bit. Otherwise ... somma dem head's gunna splode.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this man should be more concerned about Members of the House of Representatives who do not even bother to show up to vote but are paid nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteI guess Stark figures if these men are on the military payroll, they should, at the very least, be over in Iraq getting their heads blown off.
That godless piece-of-crap traitor is one of the worst people in Congress, right down there with the FARC fanboy, Jim "Wiretaps" McDermott, and Jim Moron, er, Moran. All of them not surprisingly are Democrats from uberliberal districts.
ReplyDeleteStark's continued presence in Congress is a testimonial to the willful ignorance and/or laziness of the sheeple in Alameda County, where I unfortunately reside. My good Democrat neighbors claim to be outraged by Stark's anti-military remarks and think the guy is an incompetent putz who does little for his district, but they keep voting for him.
ReplyDeleteMay 20, 2008
ReplyDeleteDear Pete Stark:
While holding hearings on the Iraq War with the relevant House of Representatives sub-committees, I couldn’t help but notice a contingent of approximately 20 pink-clad protesters sitting in the House Gallery and disrupting the debate for a couple of hours.
It’s possible they were somehow productive. If so, I obviously have no concern. However, if they were doing this in lieu of productive activites, I want an explanation of why they were there.
At a time when our government is offering ever greater hand-outs to non-producers, and these non-producer are literally asking for emergency hand-outs, why should the rest of the citizentry have to subsidize these misbehaving malcontents - who were likely accompanied by family members and "significant others" - spending hours sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives?
Please provide for me the name, and duties of each of these disrupters, as well as the amount that the government has or will contribute to their non-productive existence. I consider that subsidy as used to facilitate their attendance yesterday. I would like this information by Monday, May 25th.
This was an abhorrent misallocation of our resources at any time.
Sincerely,
Steven D
Pete Stark; You have just disqualified yourself from any public office. Please tender your resignation immediatly.
ReplyDeleteI for one think there should be both officers and enlisted persons at every vote the effects the military. Every congressperson who says something anti-military, votes against full funding, or who adds pork to the bill should be forced to explain themselves to the people it most directly effects.
ReplyDeleteThe military personnel should then be allowed to respond on the record so that there is no doubt about what is going on. Plus they should be allowed to punch on congressperson a day at their own discretion.
As an aside, can we replace Pete Stark with Tony Stark.
Let me tell you something: our troops risk life and limb for us, they can go anywhere they damn well please.
ReplyDeleteGod bless our troops!
I know that this won't go anywhere but I had to write a letter to this idiot:
ReplyDeleteDear Sir,
As an American who supports our troops, I have to take exception to your letter to Robert Gates chastizing him for having, what you thought, was high ranking military men in our nations capital.
First and formost they are Americans and they have the right to be there.
Second, our military men are not so idiotic as to leave the field if they feel that they are needed and their absense would cause harm to the ranks.
Third, that you would take such umbrage at their visit as to actually write such a mean spirited, dishonorable and irrational letter, I find dispicable in so many ways.
I would think that a person of your stature in our government would have better things to do with his time and I would think that you would be proud to have our military men and women visit the nations capital. I have obviously overestimated your ability to show respect to any military person. I am sure that your mother taught you better, but your obvious hatred of our military men and women has gotten the better of you.
You have shown many people how low a politican can go... you sir.. should be ashamed of yourself but I doubt that you can feel anything akin to shame because if you did.... you would never have written that odious, dispicable letter to begin with.
Shame on you.
A proud American - and proud Military Supporter
Dear Senator Stark,
ReplyDeleteAs Secretary of Defense, and a member of the presidential cabinet, which is , in fact, a part of the Executive branch of our federal government, I do not answer to the likes of you, a member of the Legislative branch. Nor will I take down their names on your behalf. What these flag officers were doing in the Capitol is the business of the DOD. Not yours.
Good luck spinning this little temper-tantrum in your favor.
Sincerely,
Defense Secretary Gates
++
ReplyDeletea tad OT awakening message to Stark & the rest of the anti-Military Congressional Politocracy (yes, i made the word up)..
HT : Dan R. @ ITM..
SUCCESS IN IRAQ: A MEDIA BLACKOUT
excerpt:
[Want a real "inconvenient truth?" Progress in Iraq is powerful and accelerating.
But that fact isn't helpful to elite media commissars and cadres determined to decide the presidential race over our heads. How dare our troops win? Even worse, Iraqi troops are winning. Daily.
You won't see that above the fold in The New York Times. And forget the Obama - intoxicated news networks - they've adopted his story line that the clock stopped back in 2003.
[snip]
My fellow Americans, have you read or seen a single interview with any of the millions of Iraqis in Sadr City or Basra who are thrilled that the gangster militias are gone from their neighborhoods?]
if all is fair in love & war, the MSM, Soros Dems, and Stark et al are going to pay dearly for siding with the devil..
==
BackwardsBoy,
ReplyDeleteWith comments like those he is guaranteed to a life long seat in Congress.
++
ReplyDeleteOT.. HT : Michelle Malkin
Amnesty alert
excerpt (sign & send):
[Dear Majority Leader Reid:
We write to express disappointment that the Senate Appropriations Committee chose to include in the War Supplemental more than 100 pages of immigration language that would grant legal status to more than one million illegal alien agricultural workers and their families. We urge you to remove these controversial provisions from the bill so we can enact essential funding for our troops without delay. If these provisions remain in the bill, you can expect a vigorous debate on immigration policy.]
==
"Is he daffy?"
ReplyDeleteYes.
I do particularly like the bullying, tough guy tone of the letter, especially from a guy named Fortney who represents the Bay Area.
Dear Pete
ReplyDeleteI use the familiar rather than formal heading as you have disqualified yourself from the latter. You swore to serve all the people, and military personnel are surely among them -- except more so. You are one of the sheep held in office to satisfy special interests and spending precious national treasure to enhance the rich. Your actions embarrass this nation. May the door hit you on your way out.
Warm Regards,
Jack
Yes he is one that is stupid. This Vietnam Veteran wishes he was from California so I could help vote him.
ReplyDelete