My goodness! Doesn’t the plaque in this story show his branch as “OD” (Ordinance)? Didn’t I read that he was sporting the Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB) from his tour in Iraq? I thought you had to be an Infantryman to wear that badge?
As a matter of fact, I think he’s sporting that CIB in the photo in the article.
Regardless of his branch, he commanded an infantry battalion in Iraq. It appears General Walsh took his commission as a Armor officer, and was assigned the 1st of the 163rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, a major unit of the Montana National Guard. The unit morphed into the 1st of the 163rd Infantry Regiment prior to deployment.
With regard to “his” masters thesis, democracy is NOT sufficient to democratize the Middle East. Freedom would be. But, freedom and democracy are not the same thing. Democracy is a form of government. Elections and purple thumbs. Freedom involves personal liberty and a private property/market-oriented economy. The “transformational” quality of democracy was a bill of goods sold by “neo-conservatives” (anti-communist liberals from the democratic party) who shifted over to the Republican Party after the Democratic Party went squish.