re: #28 oaktree

I think it might depend in the context of how it was stated. If he’s criticizing how they’re being used as compared to how they are behaving then he can be making a criticism that could be held as “patriotic”. Though I think the term has been horribly abused as a way to slander critics of government actions.

The problem is that too many of the critics have become uninterested in truth and simply willing to use any failing of the American military to advance their own anti-military positions. Mr. Clements was a principled critic, and I think he would have been disgusted to hear John Kerry’s lies about Vietnam or Eason Jordan’s lies about American troops targeting reporters in Iraq. Most of the reason I am so distrustful of criticism of the military is that so much of it is advanced with a partisan ax to grind.