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One is absolutely prohibited from saying anything negative about a woman, particularly a veteran. Unless, of course, that woman is a Republican. In that case, Huffington Post feels obligated to insinuate that she’s a liar and guilty of Stolen Valor.

When most people hear “combat veteran,” they think firefights with the enemy. But the military defines combat veteran differently — as soldiers who served in a combat area.

Which brings us to Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), one of the GOP’s most recent stars. It was Sen. Ernst who was selected to give the Republican response to President Obama’s recent State of the Union message this year.

Is Joni Ernst really Jane Rambo? No. She went where she was told, and fulfilled her mission to the best of her ability. And the Army has seen fit to authorize her to wear Former Wartime Service Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (FWS-SSI), more commonly known as a “combat patch.”

We too are authorized a combat patch.

We spent 12 years in the service, eight of them in tactical units, five months deployed to the Persian Gulf, six weeks of which was during combat, four days of ground combat, and a total of about maybe two hours of actual shooting at the other guy combat. And of that time, our duty consisted of sitting in the back of a Bradley and once or twice loading the TOW launcher.

We don’t claim to be an extraordinary warrior. But we do claim to be a combat veteran.  And so is Joni Ernst.

She’s never claimed any more than that. Shame on HuffPo. Of course, one is hardly surprised that an article about honor from them should be so dishonorable.