WASHINGTON: Circular fire has erupted in the US political arena over military service of its vice-presidential candidates, with both Democrats and Republicans accusing their opposition nominees of “stolen valor.”
It all began when Republican veep candidate JD Vance’s resume listed his military service, including a deployment in Iraq, burnishing a ticket where its presidential nominee Donald Trump is said to have skipped enlistment pleading bone spur problems.When Democrats announced Minnesota governor Tim Walz as their veep candidate, he and his supporters talked up his 25 years with the National Guard, the US reserve military force.
That’s when the verbal firefight began.
Smarting under attack from Walz for purporting to have Middle America common man roots while getting an Ivy League and palling with rich venture capitalists, Vance maintained he had worked himself through college, through law school to to realize the American dream, before contrasting their military service.
“As a Marine who served his country in uniform..I went to Iraq honorably when asked. When Tim Walz was asked…he dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him,” he lashed out, adding, “What’s bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not.”
Cue for Walz supporters to dig into Vance’s deployment, which showed that much of his service in the Marine Corps, including six months in Iraq, was as a media relations officer. “Talk about Stolen Valor. JD Vance was a combat correspondent who created Marine press releases and spent his 6 months in Iraq, in a NON COMBAT role, babysitting journalists,” one critic wrote. Others cited his comments that service “taught me how to live like an adult” and that he was “lucky to escape any real fighting.”
Vance supporters in turn accused Walz of misrepresenting his service to suggest he had been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan in active combat, and producing footage of veterans confronting his staff on the matter when he was running for Congress. Walz supporters say he had quit the National Guard to run for office before the deployment was announced and he never directly claimed to have been in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Lost in this war of words were voices calling for respecting service in the military and honoring veterans regardless of how and where they served.
Military service was a big deal in the US, and in American politics in particular. Two-thirds of American Presidents — 31 out of 46 by one estimate — have served in the military in some capacity. The salience of military service has decreased in recent years. Four of last five presidents, Clinton, Obama, Trump, and Biden, did not serve in the military.
The last President to do so was George W. Bush who had a sketchy stint with the Air National Guard. Like Vance and Walz, he too appeared to be a reluctant serviceman, writing in his memoir that he was willing to serve his country but preferred to do so as a combat pilot rather than “an infantryman wading across a paddy-field.”
Political scientists say American voters are now comfortable with electing people who haven’t served in the military, and point to John Kerry (Democrat), John McCain, and Bob Dole (both Republicans), all of whom failed to win the presidential election despite a sterling record of active military service. Some of this, they surmise, has to do with the decline in the importance of foreign policy, particularly for MAGA voters whose “America First” approach disdains fighting wars abroad.
It all began when Republican veep candidate JD Vance’s resume listed his military service, including a deployment in Iraq, burnishing a ticket where its presidential nominee Donald Trump is said to have skipped enlistment pleading bone spur problems.When Democrats announced Minnesota governor Tim Walz as their veep candidate, he and his supporters talked up his 25 years with the National Guard, the US reserve military force.
That’s when the verbal firefight began.
Smarting under attack from Walz for purporting to have Middle America common man roots while getting an Ivy League and palling with rich venture capitalists, Vance maintained he had worked himself through college, through law school to to realize the American dream, before contrasting their military service.
“As a Marine who served his country in uniform..I went to Iraq honorably when asked. When Tim Walz was asked…he dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him,” he lashed out, adding, “What’s bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not.”
Cue for Walz supporters to dig into Vance’s deployment, which showed that much of his service in the Marine Corps, including six months in Iraq, was as a media relations officer. “Talk about Stolen Valor. JD Vance was a combat correspondent who created Marine press releases and spent his 6 months in Iraq, in a NON COMBAT role, babysitting journalists,” one critic wrote. Others cited his comments that service “taught me how to live like an adult” and that he was “lucky to escape any real fighting.”
Vance supporters in turn accused Walz of misrepresenting his service to suggest he had been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan in active combat, and producing footage of veterans confronting his staff on the matter when he was running for Congress. Walz supporters say he had quit the National Guard to run for office before the deployment was announced and he never directly claimed to have been in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Lost in this war of words were voices calling for respecting service in the military and honoring veterans regardless of how and where they served.
Military service was a big deal in the US, and in American politics in particular. Two-thirds of American Presidents — 31 out of 46 by one estimate — have served in the military in some capacity. The salience of military service has decreased in recent years. Four of last five presidents, Clinton, Obama, Trump, and Biden, did not serve in the military.
The last President to do so was George W. Bush who had a sketchy stint with the Air National Guard. Like Vance and Walz, he too appeared to be a reluctant serviceman, writing in his memoir that he was willing to serve his country but preferred to do so as a combat pilot rather than “an infantryman wading across a paddy-field.”
Political scientists say American voters are now comfortable with electing people who haven’t served in the military, and point to John Kerry (Democrat), John McCain, and Bob Dole (both Republicans), all of whom failed to win the presidential election despite a sterling record of active military service. Some of this, they surmise, has to do with the decline in the importance of foreign policy, particularly for MAGA voters whose “America First” approach disdains fighting wars abroad.
#battle #stolen #valor #Circular #fire #race #military #service #Times #India
