Mark Dayton: “I will focus my remarks on this matter because it is one that is deserving of all the attention and concern of the…”

“I will focus my remarks on this matter because it is one that is deserving of all the attention and concern of the Members of this body, and it is a very difficult matter, one that I wish we didn't have to confront in this Chamber and one I wish we didn't have to confront in this country. But we do. We have a general with, generally, a very distinguished record, who now has been nominated for promotion to a very high office, commanding general of the Fifth Army. I have the greatest respect for the top echelon of our military command, as I have come to watch them, work with them, see their dedication and their professionalism and their compassion and concern for the men and women under their command. I regret having to raise these questions about any one of them. But we have a dead American soldier on the other hand, a young man who lost his life while in uniform, while in the service of his country. He wasn't murdered in Iraq, as some of our brave soldiers are these days, or in Afghanistan, or somewhere else. He wasn't in a training accident, as some soldiers from Minnesota have been, in this country or abroad. He was murdered. He was murdered by his own fellow American soldiers.”