mg - It's possible, I suppose. (what you said)

Some Vietnam veterans, despite giving very honorable service in combat, ended up bitterly opposing that war.....and they were naturally then at extreme odds with many other veterans who supported the war (as well as with the government and the high command). They probably all had what they felt were honorable intentions...but when people disagree on something like that then the falling out between them can become very bitter. And that leads to accusations and counter-accusations. It gets very nasty very fast...because EVERYONE involved feels so righteous in their position.

There were definitely cases of American troops who tortured and summarily executed prisoners in Vietnam, violating the Geneva Accords...as has happened in some various wars too. Such things often can happen in a war, but if someone like John Kerry points out that it happened, then he will inevitably get attacked in turn by other service personnel who didn't see it happen and who think he is attacking the entire service, and by extension attacking them...rather than the actions of certain other individuals in the service who got out of control. They take it personally, in other words, when it wasn't aimed at them.

We have had cases in Iraq also of US personnel who tortured and executed prisoners and committed atrocities, and there's no doubt about it. Some of them were charged. That doesn't mean that all US personnel in Iraq are thereby guilty by association. There's always a danger of such things happening, because an army is made of up many individuals, and when they are under great stress then some of them may break the rules. To expose it is not to attack the entire service, and I don't think that Kerry meant to attack the entire service, but some servicemen may have felt that he did just that.

They would see him as a traitor...but someone who tells what he honestly believes is true is no traitor. He's a whistleblower. And an army and nation need people to blow the whistle when things get way out of hand.

Otherwise, how can proper discipline and proper military conduct be maintained?