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I unbagged two silver star winners to verify and sign that they had been prayed for prior to shipping their remains to their families. They had returned to an attack unaided to save the lives of Marines who’d been pinned down.

I was present when their stars were posthumously awarded.

You must understand the value that warriors place on these medals. Without understanding that you cannot understand their emotion around those who would lie about it.

Along with others, P-M, you were enraged at Kerry’s obviously false claims to have been part of a commando infiltatration of Laos/Cambodia. The Swift Boat warriors weren’t united because they disliked Kerry. They had long before been united by their common experience.

I deeply resent anyone lying about their record, their awards, and especially valor awards. Those are too precious for a civilian to understand.

Not defending the integrity of these awards would be the same for me as my being the one who ordered men to die in Somalia and then running away after blood had been spilled. You besmirch the real lives sacrificed by allowing imposters.

If necessary, I’d rewrite this law so that it does have teeth. I don’t consider it a first amendment issue at all. I consider it a confidence game issue.

How would you rewrite it? The judge is right - the facts seems to indicate that the idiot in question is a braggart and not much more than that. I liked the idea of the database for valor awards. Extending it to actual service is a problem. Some guys might not want their records available on the internet, which is understandable.

A civil action might be workable. It’s not criminal, so it escapes the restrictions on criminal actions. The biggest problems are standing and the civil penalty. Veterans’ organizations could provide someone with standing to sue for false claims about valor awards, but the penalties need to be appropriate or the courts will toss it again. Maybe forcing the guy to put his face on a few advertisements that admit he lied would work.

When I heard this report on the news my blood boiled. The Judge making that ruling is dumber than a crate of rotted cabbage. Those who are service phonies are thief's of the worst sort.

They should in my mind be branded on their check with a big SV for all to see along with getting 5 years hard jail time in the AZ desert Tent City Jail of Sheriff Joe.

I deeply resent anyone lying about their record, their awards, and especially valor awards. Those are too precious for a civilian to understand.

As conservatives I think we really need to avoid the temptation of reacting to things that we resent by saying "there ought to be a law...."

Liberals always want to outlaw those things that offend them.

FWIW, I don't think there are enough of these cretans who want to pretend to be heroes when they are not to subtract from the valor of any man who ever earned a medal for valor. The honor belongs to them whether they ever got the medal or not. The medal represents that others have recognized that unique characteristic in that man.

At any rate, I don't think we need to go down the path of making it a federal crime to pretend to be someone you are not. If such action causes actual damage to another person, such as stealing his wallet or breaking his leg, then it is rightly prosecuted as a crime under existing and traditional laws of fraud and deceit.