Fake veteran faces 'stolen valor' charges

How Richard Strandlof decided to construct a lie about surviving the 9/11 attacks and a roadside bomb in Iraq, no one knows. He even went so far as to say that he had a metal plate in his head from the explosion that he escaped. He now claims he didn't mean to cause any harm, but there are certainly plenty of repercussions for lying that you are a military veteran. According to the FBI "the penalty for his crime is up to one year incarceration and a $100,000 fine."

Before his lies were discovered, he stood by politicians and spoke on behalf of veterans. He even created a group called the Colorado Veterans Alliance. Now we know the whole thing was a lie. He wasn't at the pentagon, he never served his country, and his real name is Rick Duncan. According to CNN, he denies being a pathological liar, but claims he suffered from "some severely underdiagnosed mental illness". Doug Sterner has catalogued numerous people claiming to be veterans who have never served in the military, and he says it is not unusual for those people to claim a mental illness in order to cover for themselves.

What he has done does not only affect himself, but hundreds of others. The group that he created took money away from legitimate causes for veterans. Also, any person who claims they are a veteran is going to be questioned and come under the scrutiny of the media because people know that others have lied before. I know he claims he didn't mean any harm, and this may very well be true, but the fact is, lying almost never has positive outcomes.

Personally, I don't believe that he has a mental illness, so why would someone lie about something as big as this? Did he really think he could do any good or get away with it forever?