Toxic Patriotism

As we try to dissect the various strains of patriotism it is important to note it's toxic qualities. Such uses of patriotism as a political weapon are most visible during periods of war. Dissent from policy decisions regarding the waging of war frequently invite the use of patriotism to discredit otherwise serious discourse.
In recent American history both the Vietnam and second Iraq war are vivid examples. Critics of both were charged with betraying the brave troops waging the wars and underming the national unity war demands. In both cases as the wars became increasingly unpopular toxic patriotic arguments diminished. By 1968 and the Tet offensive, the American public began to doubt the wisdom of the war and its eventual outcome. By 1975 and  the decision to disengage and effectively admit the war was a lost cause the use of patriotism as a political weapon had all but disappeared.

 A similar trajectory could be found in the Iraq war. Early protests against the invasion of the Iraq were greeted as betrayal of the nobility of the cause and its warriors. By 2005, the mounting casualties and the instability of the regime for which Americans were dying led to a gradual disillusionment with the war, its rationale and its outcome. By 2006 the antiwar sentiment had harden to the degree that an anti-war party seized control of Congress and the Commander in Chief's popularity plummeted. In 2008, a President was elected  who pledged to end the committment to Iraq.

In both cases the uses of patriotism to discredit opponents, while intense and an impediment to meaningful discourse was realitvely short lived. The original Afghanistan invasion was more or less spared this fate as little opposition was to be found. Its immediate success in ousting the Taliban and its sponsorship of those who attacked America also served to eliminate dissent and therefore the need to employ the toxic form of patriotism which Vietnam and Iraq engendered.

There is also a domestic version of toxic patriotism with a longer history but more of this later.