STOLEN VALOR: Tim Walz launched political career on false claim as combat veteran in the War on Terror.

UPDATE: Walz Falsely Claimed He Served in Afghanistan. When a Local Vet Called Him Out, His Office Did Nothing. Walz launched his first congressional campaign as ‘a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom.’

FLASHBACK: Why would anyone need to lie about having been in Vietnam? “O,the stained souls, the small-hours doubts, the troubled manhood of so many American men who didn’t go to Vietnam when they could have — the strange guilt they seem to feel when they confront Vietnam veterans. Strange: There were some cheaters and liars, but all that most of them did was exercise their legal rights, in the manner of Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut attorney general and Democratic Senate candidate — five deferments, then a safe stateside slot in the Marine reserves…Harvard and Yale and social connections are nice, but at 3 o’clock in the morning you find yourself outranked by high school dropouts whose names are on the wall of the Vietnam Memorial. Not in the eyes of the world, but in your own eyes. What a withering stare it must be for some men, that they’ll shame themselves far worse than they were shamed before, by telling a lie.”

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UPDATE (10:40 PM):