Bloomberg Stealth Edits Piece on Walz to Cover Lie That He Served in Iraq
You cannot hate the media enough.
Bloomberg quickly edited a piece by Joshua Green (this guy is important to the story) about presumptive Democrat VP candidate Tim Walz serving in Iraq.
The outlet changed it from Iraq to Italy.
The article came out on August 6 at 12:05 PM CDT.
The outlet changed it on August 7 at 1:33 PM CDT.
WOW!!! That’s one amazing STEALTH EDIT there, @Bloomberg pic.twitter.com/qp4t35AF0r
— Alan R. Levy (@alanesque) August 7, 2024
You cannot hate the media enough.
Especially since the change is a lie, according to veteran Chris Manning.
Just wow.
Its still a lie. Italy was not part of OEF, a deployment there would not constitute a deployment in support of OEF. Service in Italy does not qualify for GWOT. pic.twitter.com/qzFyWy7yb0
— Chris Manning (@Manning4USCong) August 7, 2024
Jordan Schachtel found an Atlantic article in 2004 that profiled Walz during his first Congressional campaign.
The author? Joshua Green.
Command Sergeant Major Tim Walz is a twenty-four-year veteran of the Army National Guard, now retired but still on active duty when a visit from President George W. Bush shortly before the 2004 election coincided with Walz’s homecoming to Mankato, Minnesota. A high school teacher and football coach, he had left to serve overseas in Operation Enduring Freedom. Southern Minnesota is home to a large Guard contingent that includes Walz’s unit, the First 125th Field Artillery Battalion, so the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are naturally a pressing local concern—particularly to high school students headed into the armed services.
Schachtel made two great points. Did Green omit the fact that Walz didn’t serve overseas in Operation Enduring Freedom? Did Walz lie to Green about it?
Well, Green probably answered the question later in the article when then-President George Bush showed up in Walz’s hometown where he was protesting (emphasis mine):
The president’s visit struck Walz as a teachable moment, and he and two students boarded a Bush campaign bus that took them to a quarry where the president was to speak. But after they had passed through a metal detector and their tickets and IDs were checked, they were denied admittance and ordered back onto the bus. One of the boys had a John Kerry sticker on his wallet.
Indignant, Walz refused. “As a soldier, I told them I had a right to see my commander-in-chief,” the normally jovial forty-one-year-old recently explained to a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party dinner in the small town of Albert Lea, Minnesota.
His challenge prompted a KGB-style interrogation that was sadly characteristic of Bush campaign events. Do you support the president? Walz refused to answer. Do you oppose the president? Walz replied that it was no one’s business but his own. (He later learned that his wife was informed that the Secret Service might arrest him.) Walz thought for a moment and asked the Bush staffers if they really wanted to arrest a command sergeant major who’d just returned from fighting the war on terrorism.
Green answered on Twitter, but we are left with more questions.
Josh, how do you mix up Iraq and Italy? Did you assume or did he tell you? How about your 2004 Atlantic piece you wrote on him where he wrote a few times that he served in Iraq. https://t.co/Z5x8nT65pf
— ⚾️ Mary #FlyTheW 🐻 (@mchastain81) August 7, 2024
Those in Walz’s battalion have also called him out.
Here I am on our Iraq deployment with the Minnesota Army National Guard, the very same deployment @Tim_Walz bailed on. https://t.co/FNEhq3FHFM pic.twitter.com/unfNptN2Oi
— J.R. Salzman (@jrsalzman) August 7, 2024
I served in the Minnesota National Guard with him. He literally abandoned us when we were about to be deployed to Iraq. He's a coward and should be treated as such. https://t.co/NPMfyUCjf2
— J.R. Salzman (@jrsalzman) August 7, 2024
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
iraq to italy
these days it might not make a difference
but good catch
So he did a tour in SETAF (Italy) on an individual assignment? TDY? More than a weekend or two in Rome with his wife?
Oh, wait. Did he serve in Italy (Operation Odyssey Lighning – 2016) when we sent a couple of B2s to bomb Sirte, Libya? Were any Army National Guard units/individuals involved in that operation?
OEF was *not* in Italy. Ever.
Trump somehow got 5 deferments from having to serve in the military during the worst times of the Vietnam War. How did he do this? Because his family was wealthy and had connections that very few people had. Again, 5 deferments. Even John Kerry served in Vietnam. But not Donald Trump. No sir!
You’re beating that trope to death. Just stop. You’re embarrassing yourself.
Trump is a draft dodger, pure and simple. The only reason he didn’t have to high-tail it to Canada was because his family was rich and well connected. so he could get 5 deferments, which were not available to the average working class American. Vance is the hero. Trump is the coward.
We saw how much of a coward he was on July 13.
Cori Bush is looking for haters.
he is a better man than you
How is he a draft dodger? Was he charged with that? Did he flee to Canada? Did he burn his draft card? What about the three-sport star Joe Biden’s “asthma” deferment?
Just shut up, you buffoon. Every time you open your mouth, this place gets dumber.
This is a trope. It’s fiction.
Didn’t any college student get a deferment? Or was he out of college by then?
Some poor working class soldier probably took a bullet for Trump in Nam. So Trump could live out his life of luxury and privilege. That poor soldier could never get 5 deferments. Maybe some day Trump will apologize to that grunt who died in Trump’s place. But I doubt that will ever happen.
Pretending that someone took a bullet for Trump and that Trump should apologize to a phantom is a statement of pure derangement. The words of someone mentally broken. Keith Olbermann territory. Hard to even foeel sorry for such a hatemonger. But thanks for showing just how deep the malady is.
This is nonsensical gibberish.
Trump took a round to the head just a few weeks ago, Dickhead.
You really have gone full retard.
Leave this place.
I guess I know too many soldiers who died in Vietnam and whose names are on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. I apologie to all of you draft dodging Trump supporters.
Now you are sounding like Walz. A pretender. Maybe you should apologize for those that took a bullet in your place.
One need not be a Trump supporter to identify a real jerk!
JR: “I apologie (sic) to all of you draft dodging Trump supporters.”
Apology NOT accepted by this veteran who didn’t shirk his duty, Bung Munch.
I asked you earlier what unit you served in. Clearly, as you have no answer to that question, the REAL draft-dodger here is you.
Get the hell out of here. you self-upvoting self-righteous complete waste of flatulence and bile.
Your TDS has completely broken you, you sorry little excuse for a man.
It is important to see first hand the effects of TDS on people that pretend they are superior.
When someone becomes broken, it may more accurately be diagnosed as Long Trump Virus. Then they become like Kinzinger.
“I guess I know too many soldiers who died in Vietnam and whose names are on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall”
Just like a liar would say to avoid being called racist:
JR: “I have black friends…”
Did Trump lie and say he served in Vietnam?
Cause Walz lied about serving in Iraq.
And Kerry lied about both his service and his fellow soldiers.
Not sure that’s the route you wanna go down, but whatever.
How about you, Fat Boy? What units did you serve with? What was your MOS? Let me guess… you were a combat typist, or maybe a cook (Death From Within). Oh, you didn’t serve? Quelle surprise.
Animal Mother: “So… seen any combat?”
Joker (aka JR): “Well, I seen some on TV!”
Admins: I’d say it’s probably time to ban this dufus. He has contributed exactly nothing, ever.
So much bile. Since Vance puts Walz to shame, the better question is: Did Harris serve?
Harris didn’t serve. She serviced.
The difference is that she wasn’t expected to serve, while Trump was. She didn’t have to get out of anything; Trump did, allegedly in a way that was less than 100% honest or legal. It’s far from the worst thing in his past. Nobody pretends he was a good person in the past; what matters is that he was a good president and is likely to be one again.
Whatever. Missed the point as usual.
Walz the d/prog VP nominee is being compared Vance the GoP VP nominee. If you want to compare the top of the ticket Trump v Harris have at it.
IMO all deferments were bogus and everyone should have subject to the same odds of drawing a crap ticket so long as a draft was in place. I would prefer an all volunteer force as we’ve had since early/mid 70’s with a universal selective service requirement with civilian being called when/as needed up to two years for a strictly military role or a civilian role for those over age 30 but under full retirement age. Plenty of Stateside jobs Ned by DoD could be filled by them from baking biscuits, IT support, legal services, medical field, paving roads, transport or picking up trash…everyone has something they could do.
Conscription is morally wrong, and ending it was one of the best things Nixon did.
When unevenly applied as was the case in the post WWII era I agree. When applied in an open, transparent and equal manner it is less so. IMO, conscription shouldn’t be used except during a declared war.
The other side of the coin with arguments against conscription is the free riding by those unwilling to serve. That’s another moral quandary we often overlook.
Even with a volunteer force there was a form of conscription applied in GWOT. The DoD instituted ‘stop move’ which held Soldiers in their current unit despite the end of that assignment as well as ‘stop loss’ which held Soldiers on active duty past their end term of service (ETS) date. These had the practical effect of conscription; generating bodies to fill the ranks that traditional recruiting efforts for sufficient volunteers couldn’t meet.
Even when applied evenly and fairly, conscription is slavery. It’s morally wrong. A country that can’t raise enough volunteers to defend itself isn’t worth defending.
I’m going to say “No” to that idea, Milhouse. If the people are too afraid to fight for their country or no longer care about it, that might be more an indictment of the people than of their government. And you do owe allegiance and service to your country, as has been true throughout history.
It’s not a strategically good move to go to war with people who don’t want to fight, but it can be right to do so.
BTW, if anyone thinks WW2 was so noble that everyone willingly went and volunteered at their local draft board, I would encourage watching this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb6VAT6Ymi8
Milhouse
That same logic would make every historical example of those unwilling/unable to defend themselves into ..’.worthless people’? Seems kinda harsh.
If we apply this to individual communities and States as well as to Nations then the residents of several States/Cities seem to become equally ‘worthless’ under this doctrine.
If people owe service then they’re slaves. And if you can’t survive without enslaving others then you have no right to survive. Just as the fact that you’re starving doesn’t give you the right to force people to feed you, the fact that you’re about to be murdered doesn’t give you the right to force people to defend you. In both cases you must appeal to their better natures and hope that’s enough to persuade them to help you; if it isn’t then you die.
In addition to noticing the hatred, like a broken record, it should be noted that not one words was said about Walz’s deception over the years. NOT ONE WORD!
John F’n Kerry did the same, until he ran out of deferments.
Then he ran out of Purple Hearts. And Band-Aids.
You really are broken, aren’t you? Care to about Biden’s multiple deferments?
And QUIT UPVOTING YOURSELF, you pathetic dingus.
Yeah…., about that…..
“His only tour in Vietnam was four months as officer in charge of a Swift boat in 1969. Kerry received several combat medals during this tour, including the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts.”
He did the minimum actual combat service to “retain his electibillity”, (his own words, btw) then pulled strings to leave early. According to his crews he served with, he put himself in for every medal possible, and tooted his own horn to an embarrassing degree. Example : Most serving officers would be too embarrassed by a self inflicted wound from misusing a grenade to put themselves in for a Purple Heart from the resulting rice kernel “shrapnel”.
To be fair, their recall may have been colored by his post-service switch to testify before congress that IHHO service in Vietnam constituted of engaging in war crimes. Said “War crimes” testimony being a bit sparse in specifics, almost as if he was lying under oath and had to worry about saying anything specific that could be proven untrue.
Vietnam service is a favorite bugaboo for attacking politicians of a certain age. Gore, as an actual “Senator’s Son”, served as a military correspondent – but with his very own assigned bodyguard – not a common thing. Bush jr. served stateside as a jet pilot – which some argued was a form of draft dodging – counter arguments being that jet pilot was a dangerous job even outside a combat zone and that NG wings can be and were subject to service call ups for Vietnam service. When the DD label didn’t stick there Dan Rather famously deep sixed his own career a bit when he ran with a story (never thinking it was too good to be true) that junior went awol from his NG service, said story based on easily provably fake docs that would have required access to a tardis to be valid.
The idea that Trump was a “draft dodger” because he got one or more deferments ignores the fact that deferments laws were passed for valid reasons and that one deferment didn’t serve to cover (say) four years of college or whatever deferment category in question. If Trump was a DD by your standard so was every one of the millions (?) who also got them. But by all means, continue to hold Trump to different standards than you would use for every one else, why don’t you?
The thing is that Trump’s medical deferment is plausibly alleged to have been obtained dishonestly. That makes him different from “every one of the millions (?) who also got them”.
But that’s ancient history and not really relevant. Trump now is a very different person than he was 55 years ago. And we have a record of how he would act as president. He was a good president the first time, so we can be reasonably confident that he’ll be one again the second time.
The term “plausibly alleged” says it all.
It’s entirely plausible that any medical deferment could be obtained dishonestly, and I could allege that (say) Francis Xavier DuPont (name made up, no relation to any actual person, real or literary) did so obtain a deferment.
BUT I’m not the doctor or one of the recruitment folks who signed off on it, i’m not putting forth any evidence that any of those are/were corrupt in general or especially specifically in DuPont’s case, or that DuPont faked a condition.
The entire conspiracy theory here is that
(A) Trump’s dad was rich.
(B) A rich person might fake a medical deferment more easily than a poor person.
Therefore…..
(C) Guilty.
Myself, when I enlisted at my exam the doc inquired what MOS I was going in for – and informed me my freakishly high arches on my feet would normally result in a permanant medical deferment, but as I wasn’t joining as an 11-BangBang or other specifically infantry specialty (I was being sent to programming school, so an office type job) he’d let me in.
It also occurs to me that if you in fact get 5 medical deferments – instead of just one – that means whatever the medical condition is you got it in past 5 different recruitment docs. I was in the volunteer army, but I doubt the army during the draft would blindly accept a “get out army free card” from a civilian doctor without question.
He didn’t get five medical letters. He got one letter, from that specific doctor, and that’s what got him out. That much is established fact. That the doctor gave it to him dishonestly, as a favor to his father, is not established, it’s merely plausibly alleged. At this point it’s impossible to establish it.
Soros troll – go get your nickel!
I’d like to make one correction to that referenced in the story by Manning. Service in Italy and apparently Norway in support of Afghanistan does count as GWOT and you get the ribbon.
This, however, was not Walz’s claims. He should have left it there but like all posers and valor thieves he had to be Sgt York.
Wow. Didn’t realize OEF included deployments to Italy…
At least he was “deployed” in China and had his wedding in China on the anniversary of a certain Square that is not mentionable in that country.
Bernie honeymoon: Red Square
Walz wedding: Tiananmen Square
I just can’t place any similarity here… can anyone help me?
The square is completely mentionable within China. It’s like the Mall in DC, but even MORE centrally located, all the government buildings are around it.
And think how long “campers” would be allowed to occupy the Mall. Not that what happened there was right, but in some way they were far more lenient than we would be, until they weren’t.
He can prove he was in Iraq. All he needs to do is show us his DD214 for his active service, or his deployment orders.
His campaign medals will show where he was.
My bet. No GWOT.
Also his retirement orders will show his grade upon retirement. Master Sergeant is not “the highest enlisted rank.”
I have my DD214 to prove it.
Another Dick Blumenthal if you ask me. A rear echelon chair warmer who bailed when it was time to deploy.
Walz gives US Army National Guard soldiers a bad name.
The d/prog spin machine for Walz and their lapdog legacy media seems to have forgotten about the power of the internet, that X (Twitter) isn’t under their thumb and that there are far too many Veterans who are happy to point out the details they seem to gloss over. Not to mention his record as a radical lefty politician.
This razzle dazzle effort to pitch Walz as a moderate, GWOT Veteran, MN nice neighborly regular guy ain’t anywhere close to being over the plate.
From STOLEN VALOR:
I received a partial follow up on the NGB22. After the NGB22 was issued, he was “Administratively” reduced for not completing the required educational requirements.
So he did hold the rank of CSM, but was subsequently reduced for this reason and receives retired pay for the rank of MSG. There were no disciplinary reasons for the reduction.
According to the PAO for the Minnesota National Guard, they said it is legitimate for Walz to say he served as a CSM. They said the rank changed because Walz retired before completing coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy along with other requirements associated with his promotion.
As far as deployments, I am awaiting more records but it doesn’t seem he deployed to a combat zone during his service. Will follow up when I have more information.
Served as/in the position of… sure he was in the job. He didn’t retire in that grade. His bio claims the retired rank of CSM and Harris introduced him using CSM. IMO claiming a rank/grade and trying to play up one’s record as having a combat deployment is also ‘stolen valor’. The essence of which is gaining something off a fraudulent claim about military service. That something could be as little as some guy wearing an officers rank and receiving a salute IMO.
He dumped out before checking all the boxes (completing some coursework) for completing the promotion to E-9 and qualifying for a higher pension. That proves he got out in a hurry. Nobody would quit on the verge of getting a higher pension otherwise.
I also think the ETS of 2007 was likely related to that promotion. At that level it would have been a “Get this promotion and you have to serve until 2007.” He effectively declined the promotion by retiring in 2005. So, still, claiming to have retired as a Command Sergeant Major is a false claim. (Aside from other false claims.)
Yup, there are at least THREE common enlisted tanks senior to Master Sergeant.
First Sergeant, Sergeant Major, and Command Sergeant Major.
Then there is Command Sergeant Major of the Army.
Of which there is only one serving at any given time.
On top of that, Walz was never an actual full Master Sergeant, he was made a provisional Master Sergeant – the “provisional” indicating you hold the job of the rank but the rank is temporary until it’s either confirmed or you leave the job and revert to your actual rank. Serves the same as for officers, if you need to be (say) at least a captain to do a job and (say) the previous captain died in combat you could get a provisional promotion to fill that slot.
I believe he was provisionally Command Sergeant Major, not Master Sergeant, when he retired.
And officer promotions would be a “brevet” promotion if provisional.
http://www.officialmilitaryribbons.com/military_ribbon_info/usmc_military_ribbons/global_war_terror_service.html
Clown Walz is like the kooky, obnoxious, grating, smug, narcissistic, virtue-signaling and self-reverential Dhimmi-crat neighbor that you wish lived on the other side of the planet.
Walz gives off big “Mr. Krueger” vibes! (One of George Costanza’s bosses from “Seinfeld” … )
FB was called out for censoring trump assassination news.
Zuckertool blamed it on AI software?
Yup. There were three or four unrelated mistakes. Coincidentally, all of them screwed Trump and none favored him. But it was a total coincidence.
Which is why, even I as a JHMI trainee, trust absolutely nothing that emerges from the Bloomberg School of Public Health. I haven’t placed a price on my integrity, but whatever he paid for naming rights is the cost of theirs..
On a plus note, it is ironic that they chose Walz as a hill to die on, since he apparently wasn’t willing to die on anyone else’s hill.
Get your facts straight about the average person. Being in college full-time got you a deferment throughout the war. Being married got you a deferment until August 1965. Thereafter, you got a deferment if you were married with a child. Aside from being a disastrous war from both a policy and casualty perspective – garbage “domino theory” – it was also a war that screwed single, non-college men. If Trump had not had a medical deferment, he could have gotten one other ways, as pointed out, and as many millions of young men did.
That was meant to be directed at “JR”.
Your post will fall on deaf, TDS-damaged ears.
Unlike Walz, JR isn’t smart enough to use this deafness when he gets pulled over for his DUI’s after drunk-posting.
The domino theory was not garbage. Laos and Cambodia fell immediately. It took a war to prevent Malaya from falling, and a military coup to prevent Indonesia from falling too. Had Vietnam fallen in the ’50s rather than the ’70s Malaya and Indonesia would have fallen too, and Thailand would have been unlikely to hold out.
The question is whether it mattered. For those steeped in Cold War mindset, the fact that it did happen (to some extent) is enough to prove it was right. For those who look a little deeper, the fact not all of SE Asia fell is a sign it wasn’t as true as some would think.
Maybe “is garbage” is a bit too much. But it certainly was not a grand foreign policy strategy that worked flawlessly.
Again, the only reason the rest of SE Asia didn’t fall was that the Malaya war put down the communists there, and Suharto’s coup put them down in Indonesia. Had Vietnam fallen before those events, they would have gone too, and Thailand and Burma would probably have quickly followed.
“When the nation called, he quit” Tom Barrens, a soldier that didn’t quit and know AWalz too well.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1821154488050155551
Stolen VALOR is a SHAME – it’s a CRIME, but when one can BURN OUR FLAG as an expression protected by our First Amendment, this is what you get! You get a “stealth edit” to change faulty “hearing by a reporter” from IRAQ to Italy! Claiming to be an officer or having HONORS when you do not is a CRIME, punishable by up to six months in prison. BRAGGING at a cookout that you did something you didn’t is just stupid, but FORMALLY running for OFFICE using a RANK you did NOT COMPLETELY OWN is STOLEN VALOR. I would bet it’s not the ONLY thing he’s stolen!
No, it is not a crime. The Supreme Court says it can’t be made a crime. It is protected speech, just like burning a flag, or advocating the president’s assassination.
Oh, and all those who respond to the “Jr” troll – don’t waste your precious thoughts and reasoning, simply reply “soros troll – go get your nickel”! It seems like there is a “soros troll” on nearly every article. You’re not going to change it’s mind – it’s a controlled mind – and gets that “nickel” for replies and posts!