{"id":19165,"date":"2010-05-18T14:05:03","date_gmt":"2010-05-18T19:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=19165"},"modified":"2010-05-18T14:42:12","modified_gmt":"2010-05-18T19:42:12","slug":"thoughts-on-blumenthal-news-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=19165","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on Blumenthal News Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can watch the news conference on Real Clear Politics here<\/a> (thanks to TSO for the link). <\/strong><\/p>\n

First of all, it is kinda of ironic that Blumenthal was defending himself against allegations that he lied about serving overseas in a combat zone in a VFW hall. Everybody knows that to be a member of the VFW you have to serve overseas in a combat zone.\u00a0 In my opinion, he had no business setting foot in a VFW hall.<\/p>\n

Blumenthal surrounded himself with veterans (mostly Marines) and one spoke defended Blumenthal against the allegations he lied before Blumenthal spoke. On the Fox News feed, I heard a lot of “hooahs” and no “oorahs”. Marines don’t say “hooah” and most of the vets I saw on screen were Marines. Seem strange to anybody else?<\/p>\n

Blumenthal starts out by emphasizing he “volunteered” to serve in the Marine Corps reserve. In a technical sense, yes. However, it is clear that for five years (from 1965 to 1970) he avoided serving in an active-duty unit that could have been sent to Vietnam. In 1970, he did not receive a deferment and that is the year he joined the Marine Corps Reserve.<\/p>\n

Blumenthal then admits to a “few misplaced words” and that he misspoke “on a few occasions”. I guess\u00a0 a “few ocassions” means eight times, including in print news articles that he didn’t make an effort to correct. He also stated he “regrets” those words. Yeah, I would regret them too when my lies become national news.<\/p>\n

Blumenthal then took questions and in response to one question he chastises the New York Times for barely mentioning his reserve service and deingrating the Reserves in its article. Here are some excerpts from the New York Times article<\/a>, you decide if they barely mention his reserve service:<\/p>\n

“In 1970, with his last deferment in jeopardy, he landed a coveted spot in the Marine Reserve, which virtually guaranteed that he would not be sent to Vietnam. He joined a unit in Washington that conducted drills and other exercises and focused on local projects, like fixing a campground and organizing a Toys for Tots drive.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“He said he had tried to stick to a consistent way of describing his military experience: that he served as a member of the United State Marine Corps Reserve during the Vietnam era.”<\/p>\n

“In April 1970, Mr. Blumenthal secured a spot in the Marine Corps Reserve, which was regarded as a safe harbor for those who did not want to go to war.”<\/p>\n

“Mr. Blumenthal landed in the Fourth Civil Affairs Group in Washington, whose members included the well-connected in Washington. At the time, the unit was not associated with the kind of hardship of traditional fighting units, according to Marine reports from the period and interviews with about a half-dozen men who served in the unit during the Vietnam years.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Times also posted this picture of Blumenthal in his blues:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Obviously, they didn’t ignore his service in the Reserves. Now on the issue of deningrating the reserves during the Vietnam War, it is a fact that (with a very few exceptions) the vast majority of reserve and National Guard units did not deploy to Vietnam. Service in those units was seen by many as a way of avoiding service overseas. That is indisputable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can watch the news conference on Real Clear Politics here (thanks to TSO for the … Thoughts on Blumenthal News Conference<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,30,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-phony-soldiers","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}