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There is a Difference

By: Loren Heal (Diary)  |  May 18th, 2010 at 06:57 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

There is a certain kind of man who talks up his involvement in the military.  Certain little men, sometimes called fabulists or Kerryesque winter soldiers, sometimes posers or poseurs, seek to puff themselves up by inventing or embellishing their military exploits.  Sometimes these men are boot camp rejects, while others serve as supply clerks who later become, in their retelling, men of steel.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) is one of these.

I served on active duty in the United States Marine Corps from 1983 to 1987. Joining to kill America’s enemies, I didn’t see any, unless you count crooked  Japanese landlords.

Things have changed somewhat since then, but there is a difference between being in the Marine Corps Reserves and being and active duty Marine.

No reservist could ever accidentally imply that he was active duty.  He would know what he was implying, and that it would be a lie.  These issues form for Marines a kind of sacred trust, preserved from one generation to the next. We step lightly and with great care around anything to do with Marine Corps heritage, tradition, and purpose.  Overstating valor is simply not anything one does accidentally.

There is a similar difference between being an active duty computer geek and being a rifleman, humping hills and sleeping on dirt.

No computer geek could ever accidentally imply that he was a rifleman.  He would know what he was implying, and that it would be a lie.

And there is a difference between being a rifleman, sleeping on American dirt, and being a supply clerk in a war zone.

There is likewise a difference between being a supply clerk in a war zone and being one in combat.

And of course there is a difference between being a supply clerk in combat and being an actual Marine Corps infantryman in combat.

Only a combat veteran, and not every one of those, could ever rightly say that he had “served in Viet Nam”. The rest would know what they were implying, and that it would be a lie.

For in saying “I served in Viet Nam”, one invokes lines of grunts slogging through rice paddies, avoiding punji sticks and jungle rot. There is no accident or confusion at work here.  There is only ignominious deceit.

The poser ignores or is ignorant of the significance of each level of difference.  The moment, and his own purposes, are elevated above the respect for his brothers and the vastly greater sacrifice they have made.

Attorney General Dick Blumenthal (D-CT) is a disgraceful liar. It besmirches the name of every Marine from Captain Nicholas to Chesty Puller to imply that one has seen action he has not.  Glory is not cheap, and those who grasp for it seldom deserve it.

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  • JadedByPolitics

    WAR! There is no mis-speaking when talking about whether you were or were NOT in combat in Vietnam! That the Corrupt Media LIED for years and disparaged the fine men and women of the United States Military because of their ideological bent was sickening enough but for a candidate for the United States Senate to LIE over and over and over again to make himself out to be a man of honor a man of bravery makes one’s stomach twist in knots!

    SHAME ON HIM!

  • http://www.laborunionreport.combrand/brhttp://www.laborunionreport.blogspot.com LaborUnionReport
  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    (I’ve never tried to post a photo in a comment before, so I hope this worked. If not, it’s the one where Algore is bent over adjusting the sling on his M-16 while the muzzle is pointing straight up at his face and he’s essentially staring right down the barrel.)

    Just heard someone on Hugh Hewitt’s program report that Chrissie Matthews has concluded that Blumenthal is toast.

    Gee, I must assume Keith Overbite will call him The Worst Person In The World tonight?!

    For Liberty,
    ColdWarrior, PC (that?s ?precinct committeeman,? not ?political child!?)
    Conservatives, UNITE! CHANGE the Republican Party and save the world by UNITING INSIDE the Party as precinct committeemen. NOW!

    • http://www.theminorityreportblog.com/blog/loren_heal Socrates

      He looks like a journo.

    • nessa

      What a turd. Everything about him screams “Scuff Me!” like blood in the water for a ravenous shark.

  • nessa

    Some crap weasel in the local West Hartford VFW allowed the poser to use their hall. Blumenthal doesn’t even meet the criteria for membership in the VFW.

    ?Mr. Blumenthal was considered one of the best friends a veteran could have in Connecticut. It is a true shame that he let a false claim of Vietnam service change that,? said Richard DiFederico, in a statement. ?Those who served in uniform during the Vietnam era also deserve our gratitude, which makes Mr. Blumenthal’s claim to be something he is not so outrageous.?

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37455.html#ixzz0oNJIQ1oI

    Represenataive Rob Simmons and Vets For Freedom were also quoted in the Politico piece:

    GOP Senate candidate and former Rep. Rob Simmons, a decorated military veteran who spent 19 months in Vietnam, seized on Blumenthal?s appearance Tuesday in an interview with Fox News.

    ?He’s not a veteran of foreign wars,? said Simmons, who is a VFW member. ?He should not be a member of the VFW, and I find it offensive that he’s still wrapping himself in the veteran flag of those of us who served in Vietnam.”

    Vets for Freedom, a conservative group of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, joined in a chorus of criticism Tuesday and called on Blumenthal to formally apologize to those who actually fought in Vietnam.

    ?After the New York Times exposed his real service record, Mr. Blumenthal remained defiant at his rebuttal press conference, saying he takes ?full responsibility? for the statements, yet refuses to apologize,? said Pete Hegseth, an Iraq war veteran and the group?s executive director, in a statement. ?Mr. Blumenthal also claims he merely ?misspoke? on a few occasions, and did so unknowingly. As a combat veteran of Iraq, I find this very hard to believe. All veterans know what they did and where they were. There?s a big difference between the battlefield and your hometown.?

    As for the whining, sniveling, leftist possible vets standing with him at his press conference, well… They’ve thrown away any dignity they ever possessed. I care just as much about how many 5 minute speeches Blumenthal has given in the rain as I did about Louise Slaughter’s friend who wore her dead sisters teeth and I’ll be damned if I’ll allow him to soil my VFW hall with his snivelling excuses. Blumenthal’s Service was honorable, until he decided to use it for his personal and political gain. You are exactly right Socrates, Blumenthal knew he lied every single time he “misspoke.” But he is a nice fit in the Democrat Party with winter soldier Kerry.

  • mriggio

    Each and every military veteran knows precisely where his/her service fits into that spectrum, from home-station stateside supply clerk to sand-in-the-face, bullets-whizzing-by down & dirty combat duty. No self-respecting vet could ever mistakenly confuse exactly where their service fits in that spectrum.

    Blumenthal’s Clintonesque lawyerly parsing of words, “in” Vietnam versus “during” brings to mind my home state’s recent Senatorial primary winner Mark Kirk’s commercials, where he served “over” Afghanistan. Perhaps technically correct, but what’s being implied?

    I am forever grateful for each military person’s honorable service to our country, wherever, whenever, however. It’s demeaning to puff up one’s resume by spinning the nature of military service for a purely political end, and an embarrassment when the truth comes out. If one’s capable of embarrassment, that is.

    • Hugh
  • Hugh

    I graduated from college in 1966, went to USAF Officer Training School, became a Supply Officer, and was assigned to SAC. (B-52′s & KC-135′s) Closest I ever got to Viet Nam was Guam & Okinawa. B-52′s were flying bombing missions over Viet Nam from there. (Arc Light) Was given a job and did it. Left USAF in 1971. (Captain)
    I am incensed that anyone would lie about their military service. It is simply unforgiveable. Why would anyone ever believe anything Blumenthal said again?

  • E Pluribus Unum

    Every day I am reminded of why I hate the Treason Media.

  • ocleverone
  • kowalski

    The truly disgusting thing is that this has become a story not about Blumenthal’s deliberate lies regarding his “service” but about framing and, of course, narrative.

    The message (and it has been well received by the press in this country) is that if you simply stop reporting the story it will go away and allow the candidate to tell the story his own way, which you can then pick up and repeat, and that will become the truth again.

    There are a few people who are trying to make sure that the world doesn’t just amount to a fable, artfully crafted by the powerful, but they’re in the minority.

    Blumenthal is betting that everyone will forgive and forget, and accept his version of the story as “misstatements”.

    We live in an age where the truth really doesn’t matter. It was always thus, more or less. The difference now is that the truth not mattering has been accepted and enshrined as a theoretical principle — even a virtue — of public discourse.

    It won’t last long, and it will end in spectacular fashion. The lies eventually pile up to the point that they create catastrophes.

    • kowalski

      I’ve read some of the more sympathetic apologies for Blumenthal’s “choice of words”, and probably the most emotionally compelling is the theory that he said these things in a gradual way over time, starting with the truth and then allowing it to slowly degrade into a falsehood, without realizing it, because he was really trying to empathize with his audience when he said the things he said.

      In other words, he lied out of the goodness of his own heart.

      That’s a frightening concept for someone telling stories about serving in a war zone, about life and death in general, not to mention someone who aspires to a position of such enormous power. Phrases like: “Benevolent Liar Blumenthal” come to mind. It also reminds me of the annoying habit Hillary Clinton has of affecting the local accents and vernacular when she’s speaking in front of different crowds, and anyone who has ever done it knows that it’s an absolultely premeditated attempt to manipulate the audience.

      Blumenthal needs mental health care, not election to the Senate: he doesn’t know the difference between his own fantasy narrative and reality any longer. He became untethered from his moorings because people in the press just kept repeating what he said as though it was true. I think in his own mind at some point, it really was true that he had “served in Vietnam.”

      And that says to me that he’s in an advanced state of dementia, not in a position to be elected to the United States Senate.

  • eastbaylarry

    My own Viet Nam experience was as a gun bunny, (powder man on a 155mm), with minimal hostile action to my locations, (one mid-night homemade claymare attack with only one minor injury), but that was enough to know the difference between “In Viet Nam” and “During Viet Nam”.

    Thank God this guy is a democrat!