It would have been nice if the Military Times had picked
somebody literate to comment.

“Isolationist” is basically a slur used to shame people for not
being sufficiently hawkish. Yet, the Lt. Commander, whom I’m sure
has many fine qualities, seems not to understand this, and accepts
the term as though it’s a valid description. He even alludes to a
pre-WWII mentality, implicitly accepting the premise that anybody
who opposes more-or-less random wars for the purpose of
aggrandizing the current president is a Nazi sympathizer or
appeaser.

Finally, when he says, “I think there is a lot of credence to
that argument,” he almost certainly means, “I think there is a lot
of validity to that argument.” Good grief. I get that the
two words are used in similar contexts — if something is true, you
should believe it — but they have actual meanings that are helpful
to know if you’re going to communicate effectively.

Maybe the reporter, who presumably has strong communication
skills, could have helped the poor guy out.

/Rant