Vance fires up the Swift Boat campaign on Walz

My predictions regarding the impact of the negative campaign that the right has launched against Tim Walz. Walz's mispresentation of his National Guard service and the timing of his retirement will have the same impact on the Harris/Walz campaign that Richard Blumenthal's misrepresentation of his service had on his U.S. Senate campaigns. Blumenthal claimed to have served in Vietnam and while he was in the Marines during the Vietnam war he was never deployed to Vietnam. Walz's 1995 DUI conviction will have same impact that George W. Bush's 1974 DUI conviction had on his 2000 run for the presidency and finally, Walz's experience teaching in China in 1989 and his praise for the Chinese government back then will have the same impact the Bill Clinton's trip to Moscow in 1979 when he was student at Oxford had on his 1992 run for the presidency.

 

The longer that the Harris/Walz team does not address the issues in the paid letter, the more credibility it has. It lays out very specific information that can be disproved if Walz were to release his military records and show he never enrolled in the Sgt Maj Academy and did not incur a two year obligation. If he did enroll, then he would have had to have some strings pulled to be able to retire without completing that obligation. That could possibly be the next part to this story, how did it happen and who approved it. That came up in a CNN interview the other night.

I'm not particularly fond of Vance but he has the standing to go after Walz on this topic due to his tour in Iraq.

 

You don’t think it’s problematic that he is running with Trump who is technically a draft dodger, yet is attacking a guy who honorably served for 24 years? I’m in my 24th year of service now, and let me tell you… going to combat now is not something I would want to do. Granted, I’ve already deployed and been in the combat zone several times… but right now if they asked me to go I’d consider retirement. My body is not the same as it used to be. Also, the guy left to serve as a congressman. Service is service. I see becoming a Congressman as similar (though not exactly the same) to becoming an officer. There are many cases of people not deploying with their unit in order to go to OCS. It happened to me. When I got back from OCS my unit was deployed to Iraq and I didn’t see them until they got back. I ended up deploying later to Afghanistan with a different unit. Point is, this is really nothing.

 

If you didn't want this garbage to be true, you would have knowingly dismissed it. Listen to what Adam Kinzinger thinks about this escapade.

 

But how do you reconcile the two different standards? I don't think two wrongs don't make a right, but how do you attack one and not the other? I also don't see what Walz did wrong. He served honorably for 24 years.

 

Did Harris serve in the military? If not, then it becomes an undercard vs undercard challenge on the VP ticket. Not that big of a deal but it will come up in the VP debate.

As a by stander, I think Wlaz has opened up a couple of attack vectors for Vance to go after. But again, I agree with @VAg8r1 this is a sideshow of the larger campaign.

I'll ask you this, what would you think if your Bn CSM that had just took over dropped to the IRR ahead of an known deployment?

 

I do not need to watch a YouTube video to know what is what. I've lived it over the last 24 years. I put in for the JPME II board last year and ended up attending one but not being funded for it. That meant I did not incur an additional service obligation of two years.

My advice is to wait to see if Walz releases his full military record, which would clear a lot of this up.

 

I think a lot of people wrongly think that serving in combat is the only time that counts. A lot of people go overseas to combat zones and don't do a lot, but get a lot of praise. I think we go to a dark place when we start trying to say who did what, where and when to say whose service counts more. It is just way too difficult to tell. If I had never been to Afghanistan, I would have still done a lot for my country. Afghanistan was just a small part of a long career. I don't look down upon my peers who haven't been there.

 

If my CSM had a realistic shot to get elected to Congress after an honorable 24 year career, I would be pushing him to get out there and hit the campaign trail. Unless he/she was a bad leader that mistreated Soldiers, I would be happy for them and wish them the best.

 

Is it honorable if the CSM ducks out of his first combat deployment to OIF while he still has a two year commitment to the unit based on PME enrollment?

 

Did he go AWOL or something? What am I missing. Apparently, the Army cleared him so it was honorable as characterized by his discharge. He went to serve in Congress, which is still public service.

I'm guessing you are a combat vet? Is that why this bothers you? I'm just trying to get some context here.

 

Walz reportedly took a SgtMaj Academy seat to be the CSM of his unit in late '04. That incurs a two year commitment to be the CSM for his unit. Walz was able to drop out of his unit before the official deployment orders in '05 but after he knew his unit was deploying. That means he did not honor his two year commitment to be the CSM of his Bn once he realized they would be deploying to OIF.

There are other concerns if that is the accurate story.

I'm bothered by a CSM dropping to the IRR ahead of his first combat deployment which he was required to complete.

 

You've know my posting history. While I am a Democrat, when have I ever displayed partisanship for the sake of partisanship?

 

We both know, if we are being honest, that the military let's people retire out of those commitments very frequently. It's not a rare thing. Usually, you just don't get to keep that higher rank that you achieved for retirement purposes, and that seems to be the case here. I think it was a no brainer to allow him to continue service as a Congressman, as that has a far greater public service impact than a CSM would have. It's not like he left to go lay on the beach. Congress is public service, so I still don't get what the issue is.

 

I bet he also called fallen soldiers suckers and losers too. You can stop with the faux outrage. We know you don't actually care.