Guam National Guard denies its cookie march on Marjorie Taylor Greene was ‘political theatre’

It comes after a US Marine unit apologized for tweets responding to Fox host Tucker Carlson

The Guam National Guard says it remains a “non-partisan entity” after Marjorie Taylor Greene accused Democrats of using troops for “political theatre” in delivering the island’s cookies to her office.

Guam's House of Representatives delegate, Michael San Nicolas, engaged in the "cookie diplomacy" after Ms Greene appeared to confuse the US territory with a foreign country like Russia or China.

Adjunct general of the Guam National Guard, major general Esther JC Aquigui, said in a statement to Military Times they appreciate the efforts of Mr San Nicolas “to represent our culture of Inafa’ Maolek, or bringing harmony”.

“We also thank Congresswoman Greene for ultimately helping raise awareness of Guamanians as citizens of the United States, and our rich tradition of service and sacrifice to our nation,” Ms Aquigui said.

Ms Greene had grouped Guam in with the United State's major foreign competitors during a talk at CPAC as she called for the tax dollars of Americans to be spent at home in America, not "wherever”.

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Her legislative director Taylor LaJoie received the island cookies, and the National Guard, in Ms Greene's absence, saying she appreciated their hard work keeping the country safe.

Ms Greene later said "shame on Democrats for disrespecting" the military in the stunt.

"It’s time for our great men and women of the National Guard to go home and be with their families," she tweeted.

"The Democrats need to stop using them as political theatre and drama on Capitol Hill."

Conservative observers were critical of the use of troops in the cookie delivery video, first posted by The Hill, which came as the II Marine Expeditionary Force’s Information Group (MIG) apologized for its "mistake" responding to Fox Host Tucker Carlson over his criticisms of Pentagon policy changes to attract more women.

"The military targeting individual citizens for saying words they don’t like is a Biden Administration trend that needs to stop immediately," said Ashley Sinclaire in a tweet.

Ex-Hill reporter and New York Times contributor Drew Holden said in a tweet "the increasing use of uniformed military personnel for ~sick burns~ against Republicans is, at best, weird and inappropriate".

"Interesting timing, considering all weekend we were talking about the politicization of the military. They don’t give a damn how it looks," said Politico reporter David Reaboi.

Jack Posoebic of One America News asked why soldiers were targeting members of Congress while in uniform.

"The military is absolutely not authorized to intimidate any member of Congress," he said.

Podcaster Todd Starnes said the troops "marched" on the office at the request of Guam's lone congressman.

"Imagine the apocalyptic rage of the State Run Media if a Republican lawmaker had dispatched troops to Rep. Maxine Waters' office," he said.

With roughly 170,000 federal tax-paying residents, Guam has been a part of the United States since 1899 and people born in the territory have been citizens since 1950.

In Ms Greene's speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, she urged the US to stop sending aid overseas.

"I'm a regular, normal person. And I wanted to take my regular – normal person, normal, everyday American values, which is: We love our country. We believe our hard-earned tax dollars should just go for America – not for what, China, Russia, the Middle East, Guam – whatever, wherever," Ms Greene said.

"If we want to build roads, if we want to put money into schools, if we want to build border walls, we want it right here at home. This is easy to me; it's easy to us, but it's not easy to Washington."