GOP’s Pantano can help fill need for U.S. Congressmen with real combat experience — a rare breed in 2010.

Published on: 19th August, 2010 |

 

By Verne Strickland

Most members of the U.S. Congress don’t have a clue how battles and wars are fought. They haven’t been there.

The disconnect shows in muddled decision-making, callous calls on Rules of Engagement, dangerous and naive micromanagment, and — perhaps most vital of all — failure to offer up a prescription on how to win, decisively and honorably.

As a result, America — still the most powerful nation on earth, and the most magnanimous – limps through combat situations with its fighting forces hobbled by naive directives from U.S. Congressmen who project a sanitized mentality of life — and death — in the savagery of desperate combat.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, the  enemy wears no uniform, squanders its own “soldiers” behind the cowardice of suicide missions, human shields, and wantonly kills innocents at every opportunity to weaken the resolve of the “government” to resist.

Who could understand this war? Who could deal with it? Lawyers? I don’t think so. But these are the ladies and gentlemen who send our fighting forces into combat, then waste their potential, and safety, by imposing  military impotence.

According to the Congressional Research Service 170 members of the House and 58 Senators have law degrees.

Is that enough? Or way too many? The troops who fight for our freedom are having their say now about this issue.

The choice is crystal clear in the Seventh Congressional District of North Carolina, where seven-term incumbent Mike McIntyre, an attorney who has never been in uniform, is being challenged by former combat-seasoned Marine officer Ilario Pantano.

The crying need in Washington for American patriots who have fought our wars, and who are doing so now, is powerfully expressed in a statement by Kieran Michael Lalor, founder of Iraq Veterans for Congress. These are excerpts of his comments:

White Plains, NY – August 17, 2010: The number of veterans in Congress has been dwindling since the end of the Cold War. In 1980 more than sixty percent of Congress had served but now barely twenty percent of our leaders in Washington DC spent time in uniform.

The number of combat veterans is even smaller. According to a report by the House Armed Services Committee only five percent of House members served in combat zones and even fewer saw actual combat.

Also quite rare is the member of Congress who served as an enlisted man. Only about forty percent of the veterans in Congress were enlisted despite the fact that eighty-five percent of our military are enlisted rather than commissioned officers.

In short, those who actually fight our wars are severely underrepresented in Congress. For a variety of reasons, it is in the national interest to have in Congress a critical mass of enlisted men with trigger time.

While colonels and generals craft the overall strategy of any conflict, the execution is done primarily by privates, corporals and sergeants of the infantry, artillery and cavalry. Because they operate where the metal hits the meat, enlisted men of the combat arms have valuable insights into equipment, tactics and policies.

The debate over the Rules of Engagement in Afghanistan highlights the desperate need for enlisted combat veterans of the War on Terror in Congress. Someone with a worm’s-eye view of the impact restrictive rules have on morale and a small unit’s ability to accomplish the mission would be invaluable when questioning the Pentagon brass about the wisdom of current and future rules.

Voters in North Carolina need look no further than Wilmington, NC, for a shining example of a patriotic young American who enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at 17, fought in the First Gulf War as an anti-tank gunner, re-enlisted after 9/11, won his commission at OCS, was deployed to Iraq where he took command of a Infantry Platoon and led them in combat in the “Triangle of Death” Region of Iraq, engaging the enemy in Latayifah, Yusufiyah and Falluja.

That former Marine, Ilario Pantano, was praised today (August 19) by retired Major General James E. Livingston, recipient of the highest military decoration bestowed by the United States – the Medal of Honor — for heroic actions in 1968 during the Vietnam War.

Livingston served on active duty in the Marine Corps over 33 years before retiring on September 1, 1995. He visited Wilmington, NC, Pantano’s hometown, to support the GOP nominee at a campaign news conference.

“Ilario is a true leader, a man of honor and integrity,” said General Livingston. “As a Marine who led men into battle in Vietnam, I understand the challenge of combat leadership, forged in the toughest crucible known to man.

“Ilario has once again decided to heed the call to service, this time to serve as a Congressman to stand up for us in Washington, to return fiscal responsibility to our government, to protect our national security, and preserve our values,” said General Livingston.

He particularly praised Pantano for pledging to limit his service in the U.S. House of Representatives to six terms, or a total of 12 years.

Pantano secured his pledge with a $250,000 personal bond, which will be forfeited to “Step Up for Soldiers”, a 501(c)3 charitable organization, should he fail to honor his commitment.

Meanwhile, Mike McIntyre, seven-term Seventh Congressional District incumbent, a Democrat, is ignoring his own pledge to cap his service at 12 years — a promise he made when first elected in 1996.

“He wasn’t supposed to run for re-election again in 2008. He did it anyway. And, worse than breaking his word, he’s reversed himself and voted sgainst term limits for committee chairmen, thus ensuring a cycle of corruption amongst his peers. Now he’s running again in 2010,” observed GOP candidate Pantano.

Perhaps voters in the conservative Seventh NC District, turned off by McIntyre’s claim of conservatism while voting repeatedly with liberal House Speaker Pelosi, will make the decision for the congressman, to spare him the anguish of retiring voluntarily.

www.IraqVetsForCongress.com

www.bondedtermlimits.org

http://www.pantanoforcongress.com/

Mike’s got your money. Want some? Then go for it!

Published on: 10th July, 2010 |

By Verne Strickland       CTN, Wilmington, NC

Incumbent Democratic Congressman Mike McIntyre has announced federal grant money available to “help start, sustain, and grow organizations and businesses in our communities.”

Seems okay. No doubt all this can be helpful for deserving organizations, businesses, research groups, and whole sectors of vital commerce, and society at large.  

But somehow, in this age of government giving us everything, taking care of us, pointing us in the right direction, praising or scolding us, and being generous enough to use our own tax money to do things Washington says we need, this whole exercise appears quite unnecessary and gratuitious.

Another thing is that after our tax money has been collected and sent to Washington — processed, categorized, tabulated, sliced and diced, tamped down and sent back to us — it would be interesting to know how much of it just stays in Washington and whether or not the whole exercise was worthwhile in the first place.

If we just kept it and gave some of it directly to the organizations, foundations, clubs, professional outfits, causes and industries that need and want it, the net available for actual use would be much greater, and we wouldn’t be loading up the federal payroll with a lot of slackers doing mundane stuff for the sake of what — the country? Really couldn’t say on that one.

How much do the feds siphon off to do these nice things? What do they spend the money for? Do the jobs created in government to do all these government things actually qualify as “new jobs”?

It’s the modern WPA of the Obama Administration.

I know Mike means well, but he seems to stay in Washington just by doing this kind of thing. Mike the money man. Bringing home the bacon. For you and you and you.

Is that what it’s all about? Not to my way of thinking. I want a congressman recognized for his character, commitment, accountability, and bona fide conservative credentials – someone who can show on his voting record what he really stands for. And what he may lie down for.

If that record in Mr. McIntyre’s case were really studied and showcased, it would reveal that he votes with Her Heinous, Nancy Pelosi, with astonishing regularity – almost all the time!

Okay, I got off track, but all this evasiveness and mystery about what Mike is really doing in Washington just rose up all of a sudden and got me started.

Anyway, here’s a list of the types of “purposes” for which this real American money is available, according to your Seventh District Congessman. Are there really no other resources than Uncle Sugar for accomplishing these things? I don’t know anything more about it, which is probably just as well.

Agriculture
Arts
Children
Community Development
Economic Development
Education
Environment, Water and Energy
Health
Housing
Law, Justice, Fire and Legal Services
Science, Technology and Research
Social Services
Telecommunications
If you want some of this money – or if you don’t even want it but worry you might hurt the feelings of the federal government grant people by not participating – you might get your hands on some of the cash by going to Mr. McIntyre’s Web site: www.house.gov/mcintyre

Tell ‘em Verne sent you.

GO TO THESE WEBSITES FOR MORE ARTICLES BY VERNE STRICKLAND

http://www.examiner.com/x-42565-NC-7th-Elections-2010-Examiner

http://www.examiner.com/x-20074-Raleigh-Conservative-Examiner

http://vernestrickland.blogspot.com/

Shall we celebrate out nation’s birth, or mourn its demise?

Published on: 2nd July, 2010 |

By Verne Strickland, CTN, Wilmington, NC

Soon after our clueless president has a cozy USA burger in a fast food joint in Virginia with Mr. Slick – Russian president Medvedev – FBI agents round up a scattered den of seemingly innocent, earnest young Russians on charges of spying.

Look out, America, where are your friends? Who are your enemies? So much duplicity to uncover, so little time to do it.

We need to stop being schmucks. But I think we’ll have to stop being schmucks under the next president. This one is a disaster. Some kind of hybrid American, world citizen, and closet revolutionary, who seems inclined to sell out his own country everytime he goes overseas.
And when he gets back.

He glibly cooled his way into American hearts (or spleens, livers, kidneys or some other vital organ) without giving up anything useful about himself.

When he botched his inaugural oath with the help of John Roberts, he committed the first of a succession of ghastly miscues. He curtsies to Arab and Asian “dignitaries”, disses one of our most loyal allies (inexplicably sending a wonderful gift (a bust of Winston Churchill) back to England, allows his non-white AG to climb in bed with the ruffian Black Panthers, uses a teleprompter when he speaks to school kids, and can’t seem to get his hand over his heart when the National Anthem is playing. And that can’t begin to cover the problems.

Say what?

This puzzling individual, my friends, used to be a mystery, ascending to the world’s most powerful office with only a casual vetting process. Those were the good times, before we knew what we had bought.

Now that he’s not a mystery anymore, smart American are looking anxiously to 2012, and praying our Maximum Leader doesn’t totally flush our country down the toilet.

Not “his” America, mind you – “our” America. It’s not his. He has never truly identified with it, can’t understand what it’s all about, will never respect it, and may maim or cripple the U.S. before he is finally impeached and sent packing back to Chicago, Hawaii, Thailand, or some other place where he might have been born.

Look, I have just about had it, okay?

But this harangue started with the Russians, the KGB, and happy hamburgers with Barack and his Russian buddy Medvedev, extremely lifelike clone of Vladimir Putin. Another commie wolf in wolf’s clothing.

This is a pretty fair story of the burger summit, as described by the Associated Press:

“The Obama administration welcomed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to the White House on Wednesday and played up warmer relations with the former Cold War adversary, though foreign policy disputes linger.

“Out of media view, Medvedev arrived at the White House on a sweltering summer morning for an Oval Office meeting with President Barack Obama and talks with U.S. and Russian officials in the Cabinet Room. The leaders, holding their seventh meeting since Obama took office 17 month ago, then planned to address reporters.

“The leaders snuck away for a bite to eat at a popular hamburger joint across the Potomac River—Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington, Va., where Obama took Vice President Joe Biden last year.

“U.S. officials are pointing to signs that efforts to start fresh with Moscow have delivered results, from Russian support for new penalties against Iran to the signing of a major nuclear treaty.

“Conservative critics see Obama as too conciliatory to Russia and say he hasn’t resolved disputes over issues such as Moscow’s human rights record, missile defense and Moscow’s tensions with neighboring Georgia. They charge that by speaking softly on those issues, the United States is compromising its influence among Russia’s neighboring countries.

“‘We are paying a huge price for the reset policy,’ says Ariel Cohen of the conservative Heritage Foundation.

“Administration officials say they have stood their ground on disagreements with Russia but have shifted the tone away from conflict, which they say is a sign of a maturing relationship.

“”‘The true significance of Medvedev’s visit is that it brings us closer to a relationship that doesn’t require Cold War-style summits to sustain itself,’ says Sam Charap, a Russia analyst at the Center for American Progress. ‘The lack of headlines is actually a sign of progress.’”

                                ********************************

Well, there have been some headlines now, and they belie the claim that we are winning over the Russians, even when we get chummy with them and try to buy them off with cheap food.

This sad, unsettling and embarrassing discovery, which is as close to a new Cold War as we want to get in 2010, was reported by CBS News:
“The FBI has arrested 10 people who allegedly spied for Russia for up to a decade – posing as innocent civilians while trying to infiltrate U.S. policymaking circles and learn about U.S. weapons, diplomatic strategy and political developments.

“An 11th defendant – a man accused of delivering money to the agents – remains at large.

“The story feels like a throw-back to the cold war, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr. Cryptic codes and money drops involving secret agents the U.S. government charges are spies for Russia.

“Each of the 10 was charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. attorney general, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Two criminal complaints outlining the charges were filed in U.S. District Court for the southern district of New York.

“Nine of the defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum 20 years in prison.

“There was no clue in the court papers unsealed Monday about how successful the agents had been, but they were alleged to have been long-term, deep cover spies.

“Intelligence on Obama’s foreign policy, particularly toward Russia, appears to have been a top priority.

“The timing of the arrests was notable given the efforts by Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev to ‘reset’ U.S.-Russia relations. The two leaders met last week at the White House after Medvedev visited high-tech firms in California’s Silicon Valley, and both attended the G-8, G-20 meetings over the weekend in Canada.

“The papers allege the defendants’ spying has been going on for years.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/28/world/main6627393.shtml

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9GHPK7G0&show_article=1

How naïve can our leaders be? Is Obama just practicing, or is he still in campaign mode? When will he step up and do the job he has convinced us he is so unqualified  to do? I couldn’t venture a guess.

But maybe things are turning around for the president. House Minority Leader John Boehner, not typically known for complimenting Obama, recently paid him the ultimate compliment this week, calling him “whining” and “childish”.

Works for me.

But I think maybe Pogo said it best: “We have met the enemy and they are us.”

When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?

Pantano election ‘top priority’: NCGOP 7th Chairman

Published on: 1st July, 2010 |

By Verne Strickland CTN, Wilmington, NC

At a news conference in Wilmington on Wednesday (June 30), GOP NC District Seven Congressional nominee Ilario Pantano chided Mike McIntyre and Barack Obama for their ambivalence toward the disastrous Gulf oil spill. Mr. Pantano cautioned that the problem there could become a problem for North Carolina.

Frank Williams, GOP chairman for the 7th NC Congressional District, was on hand, and was interviewed at the scene for Carolina Talk Network:

VS: There’s a lot of action going on now in Cape Fear politics and the Seventh District. What are your main objectives for Republican candidates?

“Our top priority is to get Ilario Pantano elected to Congress, and get a real conservative there – not just someone who says they’re conservative, but whose votes, beginning with  Speaker Pelosi, proves they’re conservative.

“We also have at least four winnable State Senate seats in the Seventh District alone. We only need six statewide to take the majority. I would like to see us win four of those seats here. We also have four or five targeted State House seats. So this can be the difference that will tip the balance of power in North Carolina, and even have an impact nationwide for years to come with this election this year.”
VS: What are the Senate seats where the Democratic incumbents are vulnerable?

“One of them is right here in Wilmington, which is the seat currently held by Julia Boseman. I think Thom Goolsby has a great chance to win that. A poll showed him up by 18 points recently. The other one is Bill Rabon running against David Redwine in R. C. Soles’ old district. A poll showed him up 15 points. We have a farmer named Brent Jackson from Sampson County running in Charlie Albertson’s old district. I think he has a great opportunity. And Wesley Meredith in Fayetteville, who’s running for Tony Rand’s old district, also looks extremely good. And I think those are four very winnable seats.”

VS: Mike McIntyre came in for some pointed criticism from Mr. Pantano during this news conference. What is your take on that?

“I think the central message voiced by Ilario is that we need a congressman who is going to be proactive and not reactive – waiting to see which way the wind blows before seizing leadership on an issue. I’m talking about someone who is going to get into the fight based on what’s right and what needs to be done – not just based on political considerations.

“That’s the biggest thing that came out of this news conference, which was related particularly to the oil spill. Ilario’s main point was that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It’s much better to go out and take it to the problem, and prevent the problem from growing out of control, than to respond to it when it lands on your doorstep and it’s too late to really do anything.”

‘I don’t have much time left’: WWII veteran recalls ‘his’ war

Published on: 25th June, 2010 |

“I don’t have much time left,”said 85-year-old Robert T. (Bob) Bradicich.

It was a candid “open microphone” comment before I went into an interview with this World War II veteran at a campaign event for Ilario Pantano. I knew what Bob meant, and it broke my heart.

Ilario had introduced us moments before, saying, “Bob’s an amazing guy and a great American. He’s been there.”

“There” was Bob’s war. Normandy shortly after the D-Day landings on Omaha Beach. The liberation of Paris. Fighting through Belgium and Luxembourg. The Seigfried Line. The Battle of the Bulge. The German blitzkrieg.

Many times, on many a bloody battlefield, Bob — in those earlier times, in his youth — had thought the same words that slipped out just before our interview: “I don’t have much time left.” That was in war. Now, in 2010, it is not war, but age that is stalking him.

A total of 16,112,566 individuals were members of the U.S. armed forces during World War II. Of these, there were 291,557 battle deaths, 113,842 other deaths in service (non-theater), and 671,846 non-mortal woundings. As of September 30, 2009, there were approximately 2,272,000 American veterans still living.

The ranks of these survivors are thinning at an increasing rate. Approximately 850 American World War II veterans die every day. The median age for a World II veteran in February 2009 was 86 years. Bob knows he is moving closer to the edge.

So I sat with this wonderful unassuming American hero — a plain-spoken New Yorker now living in Wilmington, NC — a dues-paying member of  The Greatest American Generation, aptly named by Tom Brokaw.

As an active and enthusiastic volunteer for Ilario Pantano, Bob speaks to groups about the war. He wants them to know what it was like. Not to shame or shock them, but to remind them of the price of freedom.

“I talk about the sailors at sea, whose ship goes down, and leaves them in unmarked graves under the ocean, and the airmen shot down, and for me, as an infantryman. I told them that when I dug a foxhole, I didn’t know if that was going to be my grave. I may have dug a hundred foxholes in France, and had the same thought every time.”

Bob’s humility is genuine and endearing.

“After I got through with those talks, the people would applaud. That always surprised me. But it was great to know they understood in some way. That meant a lot to me.”

Why is this remarkable American patriot holding forth at a campaign rally for a Republican candidate less than half his age?

“I’m here because I believe in what Ilario Pantano stands for. We are losing a lot of our freedoms, and I want Ilario to go to Washington and get America back to its roots — a nation of the people, by the people and for the people — so that we can live in security and peace again. And may that happen. Oh, God, I hope it does.”

Ilario Pantano is a combat veteran, a former officer in the U.S. Marines. He is a conservative Christian Republican, and is the GOP nominee in the 7th NC District congressional race against seven-term Democrat Mike McIntyre. The general election will take place on November 2, 2010.

AUTHOR: Verne Strickland, 73, of Wilmington NC. Retired from 50-year career in radio, television, and public relations.

Conservative political writer for Examiner.com  http://www.examiner.com/x-42565-NC-7th-Elections-2010-Examiner

And for BlogSpot  http://vernestrickland.blogspot.com/

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