My post of June 6th about Army spokesman Baggio using the term "God's work" for what the troops are doing provoked an unusually large volume of comments on STACLU. For those who have missed it, Colonel Baggio himself has now also commented. I reproduce his reply below for the convenience of readers:
"Well, well, well.... I was resisting responding to this, but have succumbed to temptation and must now put a stake in it. Everybody on both the right and left sides of the fence needs to lighten up a tad here. Somewhere among what I allegedly said, what Pauline from AP noted, what the AP editors edited, and what some of you readers interpreted, the whole context of my comments has been lost and distorted.
Let me get the mea culpa out of the way - if I used the word God - I regret that I did, especially today in this world where folks hang on your every word, over-analyze it and in turn over-react. Although I'm no rookie to the Army (enlisted in the National Guard in Nov 1979; became a Regular Army Officer in April 1983) or to the media (11 years media relations experience), this is a testament that we can and should learn something every day; I've certainly been reminded to be more cautious.
That said, assuming maybe I did say "God" - it was only a figure of speech; I could have said "yeoman's work", "more than their fare share of the work", incredible work, freaking hard work - you get the point!!! I'm curious - from that passage, how does one assume I'm Christian? Didn't see Jesus or Christ in there - did ya? The last time I checked, the Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship the same God, plus many other faiths believe in a divine being.
My faith or lack of it is irrelevant. My so-called quotes came from an informal chat - albeit on the record - with AP's Pauline Jelinek in my office - I like Pauline and I don't fault her article, I'm sure she didn't intend for it to be extrapolated as a call for Christianity and probably most people didn't read it that way.
The focus of the interview was two-fold: 1. The number of troops who had deployed vs. haven't deployed and 2. An announcement by the Marine Commandant, saying how operationally focused they are and was the Army somewhat different - less operationally focused (translate: not as gung-ho).
I vehemently defended the lion's share of Soldiers, focusing on the Army's Warrior Ethos and that no matter where they work - theater or stateside - Soldiers contribute to the fight. I can relate, currently working at the Pentagon, but having spent 13 months and 17 days in Iraq (Jan 04 - Feb 05), plus multiple shorter war zone deployments in the Balkans. I made it clear that the Army was full of Warriors - every bit as tough as our sister service the Marines.
Well...now I got "that" off my chest - it at least makes me feel better. I'd normally sign off with something like "God Bless Our Troops" but I don't want to offend anyone else - so I'll say "Keep our Troops in your thoughts and wishes."
COL Dan Baggio, U.S. Army.
So the good Colonel was using "God's" as a synonym for "good". I do something similar myself on occasions even though I am an atheist. If I encounter a clergyman who really impresses me with his Christlike nature, I will often refer to him as "A true man of God".
