I am not too sure of your point. If he had referred to the conduct of French or Italian soldiers in WWII as being "brave", then I would agree with you about the label "confused". My great uncle, a Marine in the Big One, made several disparaging remarks about the Japanese he fought against, but always added that they were brave men (often to the point of being foolhardy).
Another example would be Jim Jones killing his followers and himself. He was not brave.
Bravery requires having a sense of reality. It is also not usually a word that would describe mass murderers, nor suicide victims.