Representative Pete Stark said “ You don’t have enough money to fund the war or children but you are going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the presidents amusement” . Dang I can’t even get my mind around the vile evilness of the statement.
I know this will be in several Townhall.com columns soon and we will all comment there but I had to get it down now while I am in shock. Also a detailed response will be more then the 2K space limit on the website. It is on page 10 of the Mid east edition of the Stars and Stripes Saturday Oct 20, 2007 edition. The newspaper here, because of deliveries and time zones is always a day or two behind on news. I do check CNN, Fox, and other news sites on line as well as the Commentary sites such as Mr. Boortz Nuze site and Townhall.com.
DANG where to start. “You don’t have enough money to fund…” S-Chip is funded. President Bush wanted to expand it by 5 Billion Congress wanted more. So Pres. Bush wanted to fund healthcare for poor children. So now we have a sitting US representative lying, just telling an utter falsehood, provably wrong, and knowing himself that it is a lie, into the official congressional record. That’s the first part.
Then he goes on to say we are going to spend it to blow up innocent people. Where are we spending money to blow up innocents? The headline of today’s paper is an Army Officer acquitted of aiding enemy but guilty of lesser charges. Right under that is a story about two soldiers charged with shooting a wounded man. That’s right, if they are guilty of shooting a wounded man they will go to jail. The Army Officer did wrong he is tried and convicted. As always, and as it should be, if we commit war crimes we are tried and go to jail. Who is blowing up innocents? Almost EVERY DAY for the last month innocents are killed in roadside bombs and sectarian violence. For the last month part of my job has been to record these and other events into the computer database. Everyday we find and destroy caches of weapons and identify and disarm roadside bombs. Unfortunately we don’t get them all and innocent civilians AND ‘innocent’ Soldiers, and Marines get killed and wounded. Where are we killing innocents? That is his lie number 2.
Oh man is that a slap in the face to every decent military person over here. Now matter how angry and upset I get. No matter how much I might rage inside, I could never tolerate blowing up innocent civilians. It is something we don’t tolerate. Read my first Townhall.com blog. Killing civilians is the antithesis of everything for which we stand. However Rep. Stark feels about the war he must realize that we are protecting innocents from being blown up not the other way around. The Islamic Extremists I fight against think nothing of intentionally targeting women and children, marketplaces, Mosques, Synagogues, Churches, markets and schools. The list of such places from the Golden Dome Mosque in Samarra to the Russian School the kids were shot from while running toward their parents, the school buses in Israel, and the World Trade Center in America were all acts of Muslem extremists. We are the good guys that liberated the concentration camps. We are the ones that tried to distribute food in Somalia. We stopped the slaughter of both sides and protected Moslems in Bosnia and Kosovo. We are the honorable country Rep. Stark.
Rep. Stark wrote "If we can get enough kids to grow old enough"? This from the pro-abortion on demand side? Are kids with life threatening illnesses being turned away at emergency rooms? I think not! The House was debating whether to expand health insurance to people making $20,000-40,000 dollars MORE then the median income level. If you support that then great. If you oppose it then that’s someone’s right. However, implying that kids wont grow old enough because we will only expand S-Chip by 5 billion instead of the 35 billion well lets just say I would love to see any evidence that supports this claim.
The last line, soldiers getting their heads blown off for the President’s amusement, is what left my mouth agape, and is beyond belief. Can anyone really believe that the United States Commander in Chief or any of his subordinates gets amusement from this? This is mind boggling. This is beyond words to describe. My Commanding General (the one in charge of my Division) carries the names of every soldier who died under his command with him every day. He will never forget them and bears that burden at great cost. We have a wall with two electronic boards that has a rotating display of every soldier’s picture, name, age, birthplace and how they died, for every deceased hero in the unit. (Every soldier doing their job honorably in Iraq is a hero in my opinion). Every single person who walks past that display, and most of us pass it multiple times a day, pause and solemnly look at a person or two so that we can pay those who sacrificed all our respects. To somehow believe that any American, Democrat, Republican, Rich, Poor, Conservative, Civilian, Military, Religious, Secular or Liberal, Representative, Senator, or President could in anyway find amusement in a Soldier, Marine, Sailor or Airman getting their head blown off is shamefully disgraceful.
I have decided to email this column to Rep. Stark as well as some radio talk show hosts and my family from my military email account as well as my anonymous Townhall.com posting. It is not a condemnation of  Representative Stark, a reflection in anyway of official or unofficial Army policy, just my personal opinion of his statement as was reported in the Newspaper. I am not a resident of Mr. Starks district and am fully aware of all regulations regarding civilian control of the military and military officers roles and rights but am just so upset and disgusted about it that I can not sit by and not tell everyone how much this statement offended me.