[Sensei Ern]

I hated that patronistic clap the conwussman gave him. Bring the guy to the table and give him honor, not some lame clap.

[Zon]

The clap was a conditioned response -- adequate: to appear to have class. And what is the underpinning condition? To answer that, look/listen to him after the Sgt  contradicted him. The congressman's conditioned response was to extricate himself from having to address the Sgt with a dignified response.

On the positive side: the clip could be made into an effective TV commercial for a candidate running against John Murtha (PA) and Jim Moran (VA).

extricate: release from entanglement of difficulty.

That is so politics.

Politics isn't the solution. Politics is the problem.

The sport of entangling politicians. On a 1 to 10 scale the Sergeant nailed a 9.9. By default. The default/conditioned-response of the two congressmen discredited themselves. Had the Sergeant closed with a question I'd give him a ten. It was a great opportunity for him to close with any one of about a dozen logical and obvious questions put to the congressmen.