Military vet, protestor, diplomat - what's the difference?

[Perd Hapley]

Blumenfeld claims he has "long thought" about "whom our country includes in it’s socially constructed category of 'veteran,'" and asks: "Can we as a nation begin now to consider expanding the category of ‘veteran’ to include the diplomats and the mediators, those working in the conflict resolution, and activists dedicated to preventing wars and to bringing existing wars to diplomatic resolution once they have begun?"

"Individuals who stand up and put their lives on the line to defend our country from threats to our national security, as those in our nation’s military do, are true patriots and veterans," Blumenfeld continues. "But true patriots and veterans are also those who speak out, stand up, and put their lives on the line by actively advocating for justice, freedom, and liberty through peaceful means."

https://www.dailywire.com/news/36618/liberal-professor-asks-activists-be-considered-kassy-dillon

I'm going to guess that Blumenfeld has never "long thought" about anything.

[MillCreek]

I would not expand the definition of 'veteran' as listed above, but I have no problem in expanding the definition of 'patriot' as listed above.

[Ron]

Everyone is a veteran and patriot in post modernist USA.

You cannot appropriate the use of those words and limit them to your cis hetero, white nationalist, patriarchal narrow construct and then use them to marginalize the other who also have important voices we need to hear.

[French G.]

Cool, give em free health care through the va, should be a self editing glitch in the culture.

[Hawkmoon]

Blumenthal has a personal interest in muddying the definition of "veteran," because he has been caught out pretending that he is a Vietnam veteran. In reality, he is a "Vietnam era" veteran ... of the Marine Corps Reserve -- who (IIRC) never set foot in South Vietnam.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/did-richard-blumenthal-lie-about-serving-in-vietnam/

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/17/richard-blumenthal-vietnam_n_579656.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/nyregion/18blumenthal.html


When the NY Times, CBS, and Huffington Post agree that a Democrat is a liar -- there's a good chance he's a liar.

[MechAg94]

Another branch of the overall effort to undermine every tradition and value of US society.  

[230RN]

Blumenthal has a personal interest in muddying the definition of "veteran," because he has been caught out pretending that he is a Vietnam veteran. In reality, he is a "Vietnam era" veteran ... of the Marine Corps Reserve -- who (IIRC) never set foot in South Vietnam.

...

Like I'm a survivor of Pearl Harbor.

I'm also a survivor of the Mt. St. Helen's eruption.

And of  the Great Chilean Earthquake of 1960