Although the term has been hijacked by the left, the original meaning of "comrade" is that of one who shares one's interests or activities, and is socially or politically close. A friend is someone you would ask over for steaks and beer. A comrade is someone who might have seen you bleed during war and who you would trust with your life. That's a clean distinction, though as you noted the word has effectively been rendered unusable.
George Orwell, call your office...
That's a clean distinction, though as you noted the word has effectively been rendered unusable. Not in the VFW (in which I am a member). I have to be careful when coming directly from a VFW meeting to posting here; if a Freeper whose screen name is the Russian word for "arrow" allows a stray "comrade" to slip into any of his posts, people might start getting erroneous ideas about him ;)