DOD Directive and Bush Speeches

FoxNews was the first to break the story of how the President's recent partisan references in his speeches are putting military audiences in an uncomfortable position. In brief, it is against the rules for military on duty and in uniform to attend political events. Here is the relevant Department of Defense Directive (note the signature of then Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz). It touches on the issue a number of times, the most obvious being: E3.3. EXAMPLES OF PROHIBITED POLITICAL ACTIVITIES in accordance with the statutory restrictions in 10 U.S.C. 973(b) (reference (b)) and references (g) and (h), and the policies established in section 4., above, of this Directive, a member on active duty shall not: ... E3.3.18. Attend partisan political events as an official representative of the Armed Forces. If followed scrupulously, the directive makes it hard for politicians to manipulate the forces. But this is exactly what the President has done and continues to do. It's obvious the President has used these audiences as an alternative to get around uncomfortable questions from a representative sampling of the electorate. By attacking Democrats at these events , it now appears he has caused the military to break its own rules. More from makemefree at Daily Kos.