Problems with how they framed his military service has the left accusing people of "swift-boating" the former National Guardsman.
Here is the deal. J.D. Vance told the truth about his military service, did actually go to serve in Iraq as a Marine, but it is considered completely acceptable to attack him because he was assigned to public affairs, rather than infantry. Sure, others with his same job title died in Iraq as IEDs and other means of warfare used in Iraq did not discriminate based on job title. But that doesn't change the criticism of his military service, because... well... because he is a Republican.
On the flip side, Walz has been less than honest about his military service. He was deployed in Italy, as part of a European force during Operation Enduring Freedom (which was tied to Afghanistan) but every implication has been that he has served in combat. He, himself, has offered that he used to carry an assault rifle in combat, when in fact he never was in combat. The official biography on Walz stated that he was deployed to Iraq, which they claim was a "typo" and was supposed to say Italy. It was also suggested that he retired and held the rank of command sergeant major, but in fact his official rank after retirement was master sergeant, which is actually three ranks below command sergeant major (sergeant major and first sergeant fall in-between). Technically he went from E9 to E8 - which is one pay rank, but there are ranks within these general statuses as well. In essence he dropped out two years before his enlistment was up, if in fact everything else is an honest telling of the situation.
Of course, most importantly, he fled the Army after finding out that his battalion was being sent to Iraq for deployment. They have been tying themselves into knots trying to suggest that he "retired" innocently and coincidently without knowing this. However, every piece of evidence shows that not only did he know, but that he acknowledged publicly that his unit was going to be deployed while he was running for Congress. Member of his own unit have come out and suggested they (and others) were appalled by Walz resigning rather than going to Iraq. But of course this sort of criticism is a right wing "swift-boat" plot to undermine the proud brave military service of Walz.
To recap:
J.D. Vance has been completely honest about his time as a Marine and did a tour in Iraq. He can be criticized because of his assignment.
Tim Walz has been dishonest about seeing combat and his rank, and the Harris campaign misrepresented his military record openly by saying he served in Iraq. He also left his unit rather than be deployed to Iraq. But he cannot be criticized as that would be "swift-boating".
Sorry... but you cannot hate the media enough folks.
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