Military Deception, Made Easier by a Reluctance to Ask Questions

How does this happen? How does a fake veteran gain so much attention and power but real veterans have a hard time getting any attention at all? Please, don't tell me it's a compelling story they tell, because I've read about more impressive real veterans, wounded in service to this nation and then moving mountains to help other real veterans. So how did he do it? How did he get enough attention to lie in the first place?

A Military Deception, Made Easier by a Reluctance to Ask Questions
New York Times - United States

DENVER — The thick-muscled man with close-cropped hair who called himself Rick Duncan seemed right out of central casting as a prop for a Democratic candidate running against Bush administration policies last fall.

A former Marine Corps captain who suffered brain trauma from a roadside bomb in Iraq and was at the Pentagon during the Sept. 11 attacks. An advocate for veterans rights who opposed the war. An Annapolis graduate who was proudly gay. With his gold-plated credentials, he commanded the respect and attention of not just politicians, but also police chiefs, reporters and veterans advocates for the better part of two years.

Yet, except for his first name, virtually none of his story was true. In reality, he was Richard G. Strandlof, a charismatic drifter with a history of mental illness and petty crimes who had moved from Montana to Nevada to Colorado, assuming different names and identities along the way.
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