United States Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) announced his campaign for the president Monday, with a speech and a few words about foreign policy.

“I want to be president to defeat the enemies trying to kill us, not just penalize them or criticize them or contain them, but defeat them,” Graham said. “I have more experience with our national security than any other candidate in this race.”

Yeah, okay. That may be so. He possesses a long history of dealing with matters overseas, like pushing for military intervention after the 9/11 attacks as part of the “three amigos” (John McCain and Joe Lieberman were the other two) and voicing his vengeance toward Iran at the 2010 Halifax International Security Forum, and pushing some more and being a hawk some more and so on and so forth.

But he also has a history of lying about his military service — i.e. “stealing valor”.

It’s true that he’s a veteran, having in the United States Air Force for 33 years before retiring this year as a colonel. There’s no disputing that.

There is some dispute, however, about comments he made in 1998, when he told a Washington periodical that he was a combat veteran.

Well, sort of.

This from Wikipedia:

In 1998, according to the Congressional daily newspaper The Hill, Graham was describing himself on his website as an Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm veteran. In reality, he never left South Carolina. Graham responded: “I have not told anybody I’m a combatant. I’m not a war hero, and never said I was. I never intended to lie. If I have lied about my military record, I’m not fit to serve in Congress”, further noting that he “never deployed.”

The controversy was also featured in the Associated Press:

ASSOCIATED PRESS (2/19/98): U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham’s military service record has been called into question because the Republican congressman, who never went overseas, calls himself as a Gulf War veteran. Graham’s Internet web site biography lists him as an Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm veteran, although he never got closer to the war than McEntire Air National Guard Base near Columbia [South Carolina] where he was a military lawyer.

Time, Gawker

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