I don't. I've been in the military for over 25 years. I just think he is a fool. Fools say foolish things.
I do think that he believes he is superior...to everybody. That attitude certainly isn't helping him here.
He might not hate the individual troops but he doesn't respect them either.
He clearly has deep and pathological disdain for the institutions of the military. I don't think he 'hates' the individual servicemembers, per se, but he clearly thinks them as vastly inferior.
You see that mindset with certain types of officers; they see enlisted men as little more than semi-literate thugs, and view other officers as tools to either dominate or suck up to.
I believe he hates authority in general. His hatred of military authority seems blatant and obvious, both in Vietnam and in his political career.
Does he truly hate the rank and file soldiers individually? Probably not. Does he hate the decision making levels of the military? Probably yes. He sees all Generals as being a Westmoreland, all SecDefs as being a McNamara. It's the Vietnam/60's/Watergate syndrome that so many people his age still suffer from.
Does he truly respect today's volunteer force in general? Probably not. Don't forget last year's 'breaking down doors in the middle of the night' comment about our troops in Iraq.
He doesn't even acknowledge their personhood enough TO hate them; they are just tools to be used as needed to gain power, like he uses everyone and everything around him as necessary.
That's why he's so outraged now. He used them as needed, and he can't believe they're so mad about it
It might not be hate, but it sure isn't love or respect.
Yes I do, he's had a long history on this. These are John Kerry's own words.
"April 22, 1972
"I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command....
They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country."
December 4, 2005, in an interview on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer
And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraquis in the dead of night terrorizing kids and children, you know women, breaking sort of the customs of the-of-the historical customs, religious customs......"
I think he hates them because they didnt line up in lockstep to vote for him in 2004.
"How could you NOT vote for me you simpletons? I'm a VETERAN!."