Maybe he was being euphemistic?
You know… I’m with John Stewart on this one. The outrage should be: “Why is an American service veteran living on the street?”
Newsflash: Bob McDonald is human --most people are. Also: Context matters. IMO this lie carries the weight of an ant fart.
Agreed. He’s had advanced training beyond general infantry, and he was trying to relate to the guy. Close enough.
I saw the clip. He may have been expressing incredulity at the claim made by a stranger on the street to having served in special forces: “Yeah? Me too!” Then, when it made the news he couldn’t exactly say, “I was making fun of the guy!” So, we have another pointless and unfelt apology to add to the pile.
“I was doing special operations in Viet Nam. I was the famous agent Orange.”
(Roughly paraphrased, don’t ask me from what movie it was.)
It was my first thought too, shitty to do to a homeless guy but we are chasing the wrong sin here IMHO. Homeless people have to pad every story with roses because to most people the homeless are worse to see than dog shit on the sidewalk.
The whole stolen valor crusade is a bit wackado.
Walking around with fake medals or badges is lame, as is lying about what university you attended, it is a fireable offence to do on a competitive CV, but probably not in conversation with a stranger.
In the context of military officers, he now carries that weight, too.
I wager two quatloo he resigns in the Friday news dump. After 5pm, this Friday.
My understanding of this context comes from growing up in a military family.He may not resign over it, but he lost some face, and face is very important stuff in that culture.
I concede the point (frankly, that should have occurred to me --given all the service member family and friends I have). But it will be a damn shame if he has to fall on his sword over this.
It bothers me that BoingBoing is running with this sort of tabloid style trash. And that’s what this story is. Really, the man was reaching out to a homeless vet and the story isn’t that there’s a homeless vet? I’d say this is a great illustration of obsession with crap that doesn’t matter to the exclusion of stuff that does.
Perfectly correct, on all counts.
Trading Places: opening / very early scene
What! No love for BA Baracus!
I pity da fool.
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