I don't really have an opinion on Tim Kennedy because I don't really follow him or know the story. I didn't even know who he was until recently. I'm just truly skeptical when stories suddenly come out of the woodwork about people like this. He's become a political figure, and when you do that, hate will follow as your opposition tries their level best to discredit you.
When it comes to military haters, the hate really flares up if your service is used to propel that gain, especially if it puts you in the spotlight. Then all the dick measurers come out to compare number, suck factor and duration of deployments, as if they charge the machine gun nests at Utah beach.
Of course many have no problem using their service to get them a high paying civilian job, often one where they continue to suck off the government tit while collecting a pension and VA...100% of course because their sleep apnea and plantar fasciitis flared up at year 19. You must do all this quietly without any fanfare.
I've never bought into the idea that the government gets to exploit you for all your worth, but you must not exploit your service to get ahead in the civilian world. Based on their actions, many who tout this don't really believe it either.
As far as claiming medals, ya that ain't cool. I truly despise our medal system as it's become more of a check box or a system to help propel the shiny pennies. The ribbon rack on my blues collecting dust in the closet is still the ribbon rack from when I was a SSgt.