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In general, the military has always represented the best of American qualities (courage, honor, love of God and country, responsibility), so this comes as no surprise. It's alot of the stuff they hate all rolled into one.

I disagree that the military represents love of (a Christian) God. Maybe you're thinking of the Boy Scouts, another group reviled by the PC.

But it sure is strange that nothing has changed since hippies were spitting on returning Vietnam veterans.

But it sure is strange that nothing has changed since hippies were spitting on returning Vietnam veterans.

That is just an urban legend started because of a few isolated incidents and perpetuated in the movie Rambo.

That is just an urban legend started because of a few isolated incidents and perpetuated in the movie Rambo.

Drawing on my own experience as a Vietnam veteran who came home from the war and joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), I called the image of spat-upon Vietnam veterans a myth.

For a book I wrote in 1998 I looked back to the time when the spit was supposedly flying, the late 1960s and early 1970s. I found nothing. No news reports or even claims that someone was being spat on.

What I did find is that around 1980, scores of Vietnam-generation men were saying they were greeted by spitters when they came home from Vietnam.

Like many stories of the spat-upon veteran genre, Smith's lacks credulity. GIs landed at military airbases, not civilian airports, and protesters could not have gotten onto the bases and anywhere near deplaning troops. There may have been exceptions, of course, but in those cases how would protesters have known in advance that a plane was being diverted to a civilian site? And even then, returnees would have been immediately bused to nearby military installations and processed for reassignment or discharge.

an excerpt from p. 232 of Bob Kerrey's new book, "When I Was A Young Man". The future Senator is describing an incident in 1969; he is in Philadelphia undergoing rehab with his prosthetic leg and the incident occurs at the Martin Luther King track meet at Villanova:

"After the race I was taunted by a group of long-haired men who blocked the exit and knocked me to the ground as I pushed past them to leave."

from the Nov 30, 1971 Times:

The Agony of the U.S. Army
...The fact is, however, that the service and many of the things it stands for are taking a bad beating these days. The uniform of its soldiers is spat upon in the streets and its wearers are denounced in public places as "war criminals".

"One year later, I stepped off the plane at O'Hare, in my USAF Sgt's Blues, somewhat confused. A young, smiling, Blonde woman - a stranger - raced up to me with her arms outstreched. Just in front of me she stopped, turned ugly, screamed "baby killer" at me and spat in my face. Her spittle burned as it traced down my cheek. My first breaths on US soil - again, burned through my soul with rage, grief, humiliation, distain, despair and shame."

"a youing guy, about twenty or so, wearing a headband and a leather vest, stepped back and looked at me. 'Have you been in Vietnam?' he asked innocently. 'Yeah,' I said 'I just go back, and I'm heading back to Al-' He never let me finish. He leaned back, made a couple of swishing motions with his mouth and spit in my face. I jumped backward, but his spittle hit me on my bare arm. I took a step forward realizing that he couldn't escape, and felt my heart begin to pump faster?I dragged all my stuff into the toilet stall, locked the door, put my face in my hands, and cried for the first time in months"

You want to talk about urban myths? Let's start with the urban myth that the 60s and 70s peace movement was about "peace" and not about drugs, music, free sex, and rebelling against parents and the establishment.