How do you feel about veterans or Soldiers criticizing our President?

No matter how you feel, he is the commander and chief and as an NCO you must support your leaders to set a good example for subordinates. If you speak bad about a leader, it will show a lack of confidence throughout the chain of command.

For as long as I can remember the president of the United States has been bad mouthed by those who disagree with him. It matters not what party he is from. At the lunch table in a retirement home a female said and I quote "Someone ought to shoot Bush." I thought that crossed a line and told her so in a voice that would make a DI proud.

Is it right? No. Is it going to change? No.

The interesting thing to me is those who object always say why is this president being maligned? Usually it is the same people that maligned the last president of the other party.

The only thing that can stop this is for us to quit being so one sided in our views and for us to respect not demonise those who have an opposing view.

Will I see this in my lifetime? I seriously doubt it. But, I truly wish we could at least make some progress.

Why? Is anyone in public service above criticism? Past presidents certainly have gotten their fair share of criticism by servicemembers. Ever hear of an O-3 getting criticized by his subordinates? Or a Squad/Platoon Sergeant? The fact is that CinC is a leadership position, and that person's judgement and decisions are open to scrutiny, and, sometimes, to criticism. Servicemembers follow (lawful) orders. Sometimes they do it gleefully, sometimes grumbling all the way.

The only line that should be drawn is between criticizing him personally and criticizing his judgement, conduct, decisions. Personal attacks are simply bad form.

As military personnel we took an oath to support and defend the constitution and obey the orders of its elected officials. Personal feelings about those officials are meaningless when it comes to performing our duties. Right or wrong, like them or not, they were ELECTED by the citizens of our nation, which includes the armed forces. The office and the person elected to it must be respected by the military and veterans alike, regardless of the views held by the population as a whole. We as sevice men and women are the anchor that keeps the water from being spoiled by those that dont or choose not to understand that fact. Even when the uniform comes off and your time in the military is over, we still wear the uniform as veterans. Do yourself and your country a favor, and dont ever forget what you took an oath to protect and defend.

Examine may true reasons for speaking the way I do!? Let me guess SPC Young, you just about called me a racist. Am I right? As I stated in earlier comments, I did not like Bush. I understand why people feel the way they do about Iraq but how do you feel about Afghanistan? Do you think we should not have retaliated because of what happened on 9-11-01 ? Oh yea and by the way, the enemies your King supplied weapons to now joined the ISIS in Iraq. What's the excuse for that? Last time I read up on it, that equals TREASON. Supplying weapons to the enemy. That should also answer your question on how the current POTUS. Has hurt the military. Oh! And yes I do address him by the title he holds, POTUS means President of The United States. Have a good day.

We took an Oath to protect our Constitution from all enemy's - Foreign and Domestic .

I am a Veteran of the US Air Force. I will obey ANY orders of the Commander and Chief, but as long as they are LAWFUL and as long as the President has an idea as to how the military works. I RESPECT THE OFFICE of the PRESIDENT of the United States. I just do not respect some of the men that have been president. 2 of the last 4 have either manipulated or abused the office. One simple just thinks he is a king another thought morals were a joke. We have in the past and now are considered a joke. How can we as Americans be taken seriously if our Leaders are not serious leaders and do not understand what we do. the following quote from the movie "A Few Good Men." sums up my feelings on the issue.

"Col. Jessep: Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to."

I also see a lot of posts on social networking sights that down talk the president. Personally, I do not see anything wrong for a person to respectfully and tastefully disagree with the president. I served in the Marines in the eighties when there was no social networking. However, this did not stop us from talking among ourselves. We followed the orders of those above us without question. We all have opinions, and I see nothing wrong in having a barracks discussion, as long as it is not a discussion to overthrow the president.
If we disagreed with an order that was given to us we could always request mass, but the order had to be carried out first, regardless.
As a veteran, I believe we have a bit more freedom to become politically active, however, it does reflect badly on the military if we behave in a way that is distasteful, disrespectful, or illegal. I have spoken out about presidents, but I have the highest regard for the office. Even though I have disagreements with presidential policies by more than one president, I have never called for an overthrow, other than vote them out.
For those actively serving then opinions should be kept among yourselves, and not put on a public networking site.
As I stated earlier, there was no such thing as social networking when I served. I would not go stand on a corner and bad mouth the commander in chief, and doing it on social networking is the same as. If in doubt, keep quiet.

SPC Buck,
You get the amount of respect that you give!

I'd even be careful with stating facts in a non bias manner.  Many SMs will welcome it as disrespect or even racism as Oprah likes to say along with AG, Eric Holder.