FACT CHECK: Does A Department Of Defense Directive Authorize Military To Use Lethal Force Against US Citizens?
The Pentagon provided a statement to Check Your Fact debunking the claim.
Maryland Gov. Moore calls stolen valor over Bronze Star an ‘honest mistake,’ deflects blame
Maryland Governor Wes Moore (D) has been accused of stolen valor for previously failing to correct the record about a Bronze Star he never received, but claimed he had, while serving in the United States Army.
A New York Times report published Thursday revealed that in 2006, Moore, then 27 years old, claimed on an application for the White House Fellowship that he had received the award.
'I should have corrected the interviewers.'
“For my work,” he claimed, “the 82nd Airborne Division have awarded me the Bronze Star Medal and the Combat Action Badge.”
Bronze Star awards are given to military members who perform “acts of heroism in ground combat.”
He had not been awarded with either the Bronze Star or the badge at the time of the submission. The Times found that Moore never received the Bronze Star but earned the badge in May 2006, according to an Army spokesperson.
During a Wednesday interview, Moore called the statement on his application “an honest mistake.”
“While serving overseas with the Army, I was encouraged to fill out an application for the White House Fellowship by my deputy brigade commander,” Moore stated. “In fact, he helped me edit it before I sent it in. At the time, he had recommended me for the Bronze Star. He told me to include the Bronze Star award on my application after confirming with two other senior-level officers that they had also signed off on the commendation.”
“I made an honest mistake by including something because my commanding officer thought it was a good idea,” Moore added. “He thought that I earned it and he was already going through the paperwork to process it.”
Moore’s then-commanding officer, Lt. Gen. Michael Fenzel, confirmed to the Times that he had advised Moore to include the Bronze Star on his application. He told Moore that he and others had already approved the medal. Fenzel noted that Moore initially objected to including it on his application.
Fenzel stated that he was unaware that Moore had never received the medal, adding that he plans to resubmit the paperwork.
However, despite claiming it was “an honest mistake,” Moore has had several opportunities to correct the record, including during a 2008 PBS panel discussion with Gwen Ifill and a 2010 appearance on “The Colbert Report” with Stephen Colbert.
“I should have corrected the interviewers,” Moore said. “In retrospect, I’m sorry that I didn’t.”
Moore has received several other medals for his time in the military, including a National Defense Service Medal, an Afghanistan Campaign Medal, an Armed Forces Reserve Medal with “M” Device, an Army Service Ribbon, and a Parachutist Badge.
Moore was initially included among Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris’ list of candidates for running mate. According to Moore, questions regarding the Bronze Star did not come up.
Harris ultimately selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) as her vice presidential nominee, who has also been accused of stolen valor. Walz referred to weapons he “carried in war,” but he was never deployed to a combat zone. He has also been introduced as a “command sergeant major” despite retiring at a lower rank and failing to meet the requirements associated with the higher position.
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US Army ADMITS the vaccine hurt soldiers, but no — the Army won’t help them
Karolina Stancik is a U.S. Army veteran who tragically suffered severe heart conditions after being mandated to take the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
While the Army has shockingly acknowledged in an internal memo that her injuries were vaccine-induced, they discharged Stancik and refused to cover her medical treatment.
“I am 24 years old, I have had three heart attacks, a mini stroke, and I am now getting a pacemaker,” Stancik told investigative reporter Catherine Herridge in an interview.
Stancik told Herridge that the COVID vaccine is when “everything flipped upside down” for her and that she was “left behind and trampled” by the U.S. Army.
“So, the Army admits in an internal memo that they referenced that all of these injuries were caused by the vaccine, and yet, you know, they discharged her by the way, because ‘You’re of no use to us now. You’re disabled now,’” Sara Gonzales says, clearly disturbed.
“How sick and how rotten is this administration that we will force servicemen and women to buy into a narrative and if they don’t and then get hurt, you just toss them aside and feed them to the wolves,” Jaco Booyens agrees.
Booyens' own brother, who he says has “3% body fat and is a top former professional athlete,” all of a sudden got myocarditis.
“His doctors lie to him, they tell him it’s called ‘athlete’s heart,’” Booyens explains. “He’s like, ‘What is athlete's heart?’”
“Fights for his life in ICU for 13 days, turned to the brink of death. This has happened hundreds of thousands, if not millions of times,” he continues, adding, “Anthony Fauci should be in front of an international tribunal for crimes against humanity.”
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Army's new recruitment video raises eyebrows with its lack of diversity: 'We are definitely going to war'
The U.S. Army's latest recruitment advertisement has raised eyebrows over its uncharacteristic lack of diversity. Some critics have suggested that the prominence of white male service members in the ad might indicate extreme desperation on the part of the Army to hit recruitment targets and/or war on the horizon.
What's the background?
In recent years, the Army has been blasted for pushing ad campaigns that appeared more concerned with identity politics than with attracting a new generation of patriotic warriors.
For instance, it released an ad released on May 4, 2021, featured a lesbian couple, an LGBT activist parade, and the suggestion that supporting non-straight unions was comparable to defending the nation. Critics suggested that beyond its apparent ideological bent, the ad was off-brand for the Army.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) ruffled feathers with his subsequent suggestion that "perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea."
When challenged over the tweet, Cruz said, "We have the greatest military on earth, but Dem politicians & woke media are trying to turn them into pansies."
For all the attention this ad and others got for downplaying combat, highlighting personal development, and harping on themes of identity, they did not appear to move the needle on recruitment.
In 2022, the Army fell 15,000 soldiers (25%) short of its target, reported the Army Times.
"In the Army's most challenging recruiting year since the start of the all-volunteer force, we will only achieve 75% of our fiscal year 22 recruiting goal," said Army Secretary Christine Wormuth.
Things have not improved a great deal since. Task & Purpose reported that the Army expects to end fiscal year 2024 with 55,000 new recruits, 10,000 short of its original goal.
Getting serious
In March, the U.S. Army launched a rebrand in hopes of increasing enlistment numbers. While still willing to publish makeup tutorials on its YouTube page, the Army ran two ads both featuring recreations of historic battles and celebrating the virtue of yesteryear's fighters with no explicit emphasis on their immutable characteristics. Marvel actor Jonathan Majors, now awaiting trial on assault and harassment charges, served as on-screen narrator.
Wormuth told CNN, "The Army at the end of the day is here to fight and win the nation's wars, and we wanted to reflect the Army that does that. And that's the Army that I see when I go out and visit installations, whether it's here or whether it's overseas."
"These commercials were really based on the market research we’ve been doing about, what do people think about the Army, what do they think they know, what don’t they know, and how do we start telling that story through these ads?" continued Wormuth.
While this campaign ditched the softness of previous efforts, diversity apparently remained a pre-eminent concern.
"You're going to see lots of different people doing lots of different roles," said Wormuth. "You're going to see men and women, you're going to see people of color, and part of that is important because one of the things we found in our market research is that a lot of young people admire the Army, but they don't think there are people like them in the Army."
Numbers over diversity
Now, months later with the Israel-Hamas war in full swing, the Army has released an ad entitled "Jump" in which women and minorities are noticeably absent.
"Jump," released on Nov. 4, is the fourth commercial in the Army's "First Steps" campaign, which was launched in August, and part of its 2023 "Be All You Can Be" rebrand. It features a largely white cast of male soldiers packed into a CH-47 Chinook helicopter preparing for a parachute jump. The camera alternates between the soldiers' point of view and cinematic shots.
As a soldier's parachute opens, text appears saying, "Your greatest victories are never achieved alone."
Critics immediately seized upon the ad's apparent lack of diversity.
BlazeTV host Lauren Chen responded on X, "The Army has abandoned woke advertising. Looks like they're going to war and looking for white boy canon [sic] fodder."
The popular X account Wall Street Silver wrote, "All white guys in the US Army ads again ... we are definitely going to war."
Darren Beattie, the editor of Revolver News, wrote, "Attention white men. Time to fight and die for a regime that hates you. ... The semiconductors of Taiwan must be liberated."
Peachy Keenan, the pseudonymous contributing editor of the American Mind, tweeted, "The US Army's new recruitment ad is so cynical. After 15 years of relentless progessive [sic] brainwashing and doing a literal 'stand down' to root out 'extremists' ( ie white conservatives), they are now facing an existential recruiting crisis and must return again to seducing the children of said 'extremists' into fighting for their country."
TPUSA CEO Charlie Kirk asked, "Are we going to war?"
An unwoke appeal to potential white male recruits might be a sound move for the Army, given its present and historic demographics.
The number of white soldiers in the Army has dropped off precipitously since 2010, when they accounted for 62.2% of the fighting force.
According to the Army, as of June 2022, white soldiers made up 53.9% of the Army's active component, accounting for 69% of all officers, 62% of warrant officers, and 63% of USMA cadets. Males accounted for 84.4% of the total.
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