Senator-Iraq Veteran Blames Plagiarism on Combat PTSD?

Senator John Walsh has turned a unique situation into a scandal. Having managed to become the Montana Senator, after combat and after being hit by PTSD, he was an outstanding example of what is possible for all of our veterans. Now it appears he wants to use having PTSD as an excuse for plagiarism. He should have simply offered a heartfelt apology instead of using it as an excuse. He can still turn this around if he stops listening to his political advisors and starts listening to veterans with PTSD about what he can do for them.

Montana senator says he was being treated for PTSD when he used unattributed work in thesis
Senator says he had PTSD when he wrote thesis
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jul 23, 2014

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Sen. John Walsh of Montana said Wednesday his failure to attribute conclusions and verbatim passages lifted from other scholars' work in his thesis to earn a master's degree from the U.S. Army War College was an unintentional mistake caused in part by post-traumatic stress disorder.

The apparent plagiarism first reported by The New York Times was the second potentially damaging issue raised this year involving the Democrat's 33-year military career, which has been a cornerstone of his campaign to keep the seat he was appointed to in February when Max Baucus resigned to become U.S. ambassador to China.

National Democrats said Wednesday they remained "100 percent behind Sen. Walsh" in his campaign against Republican Rep. Steve Daines.

Walsh told The Associated Press when he wrote the thesis, he had PTSD from his service in Iraq, was on medication and was dealing with the stress of a fellow veteran's recent suicide.

"I don't want to blame my mistake on PTSD, but I do want to say it may have been a factor," the senator said. "My head was not in a place very conducive to a classroom and an academic environment."

Walsh submitted his thesis, titled "The Case for Democracy as a Long Term National Strategy," to earn his Master of Strategic Studies degree in 2007, nearly two years after he returned from Iraq and about a year before he became Montana's adjutant general overseeing the state's National Guard and Department of Military Affairs.

The paper includes a series of unattributed passages taken from the writings of other scholars.
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