How is that relevant? There are a lot of things I find offensive as well, but I don’t believe in making recourse to the law to suppress them.
This is the kind of logic that is justifying hate-crime legislation (adding thought-crime as an aggravating factor in ordinary crimes) and to people being prosecuted by various governments for criticising Islam or Homosexuality....
There are people who are receiving VA benefits by pretending to be disabled vets.
Check out Kerry's book Winter Soldier. Those guys were not in combat, and most were never in the service.
There is a guy that was the poster boy for the Democrats against Iraq. Turns out he was never in the service.
It is fraud, and they influence others.
This is the kind of logic that is justifying hate-crime legislation (adding thought-crime as an aggravating factor in ordinary crimes) and to people being prosecuted by various governments for criticising Islam or Homosexuality....
Many still think of Viet Nam veterans as "Burned-Out/Shell-Shocked Freaks," more fit to be pitied than admired. Primarily, this belief was caused by war protesters wearing dirty fatigues claiming to have been damaged by an "illegal and immoral war."
Generations grew up believing these claims. When they were finally examined, the primary "professional protesters" were exposed as liars and frauds. Usually, those who actually served rarely served outside of the CONUS and never served in combat.
More recently, fake "war-heroes" waived counterfeit "bloody shirts" in vulgar attempts to gain credibility for anti-military and anti-American political platforms. some, like Jesse MacBeth were prosecuted, but only because they committed fraud by claiming VA benefits. However, the damage caused to our nation's armed forces cannot be healed. Al Quaeda used his speeches as recruiting tools.
This is a crime con artists must fear commiting, not for the sake of special privilege for America's Soldier, but for the sake of America's security.