Ohio Sen. JD Vance slammed the timing of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s retirement from a more-than-two-decades-long military career as a means of avoiding a deployment to Iraq on Wednesday, calling it “stolen valor garbage” and testing a new line of attack on the newly minted Democratic vice presidential contender.
There is no evidence that Walz retired to avoid a wartime deployment, and it’s a move that may not work — Walz has faced similar attacks from opponents before during successful races for Congress and governor, in which he explained his Army record in detail but did not make it a central part of his campaign.
The attacks are reminiscent of the 2004 campaign to discredit the distinguished war record of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, who served in Vietnam and later criticized the war — an effort led by Chris LaCivita, now a senior adviser to the Trump campaign.
What remains to be seen is if the tactic will be as successful 20 years later, when the Republican presidential nominee evaded military service, and Vance, despite his deployment to Iraq, has no combat experience either.
Not sure. I don’t care that much, honestly.
Given the nature of military service, It’s simply sufficient that they served. Though, it must be said, the dedication it takes to reach E-8 is insane, and getting there is not something to sneeze at.
Vance on the other hand was a e-4 and only served 4 years.
The only reason to disparage Vance’s service is because of the rank hypocrisy he’s displaying. Especially because the original criticism came from a couple e-7s that got passed on the promotion walz earned to e-8; and the “stolen valor” comment walz made was clearly not, in the context of what Walz was saying.
They just don’t have a good answer for why there needs to be civilian access to weapons of war.