This is not nearly as straight forward a question as it may seem. When I was younger, the answer would have been an overwhelming yes. So much in fact that I voluntarily joined (arguably) the toughest branch of the military in the world. At the tender young age of 19 I enlisted in the U.S. Marines. It would appear on the surface that this is the ultimate act of patriotism.
Uncle Sam gave the call and I went. It was an honorable call. I went to Somalia to protect the innocent and make sure that the U.N. food shipments got to the people that needed it unmolested. But, was that the reason I was there? A week or so before I arrived on station, a certain Army black-hawk pilot was dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. We all saw this happen live via the cable news network. So what was the real reason the Marines were there? Was it to help the starving people or was it payback against the warlords (particularly Aidid, who was one of the most powerful), we didn't care what the real reason was. My comrades and myself were looking for some payback.
Let's skip ahead a couple of years. Saddam Hussein was causing more trouble in his neck of the woods. We had already been bought once in 1991 to liberate Kuwait (an agreement to buy oil at slightly less than market value for a few years), now his brother, the King of Jordan, was worried that old Saddam might decide to annex his kingdom. We went and trained the Jordanian army in tactics of modern warfare (with U.S. weapons bought at a premium price, of course). Then just to let our old buddy know we were in the area, we mirrored Iraqi troop movement on the border between Iraq and Saudi.
In between these combat deployments, we found ourselves enjoying the wonders of the world. I don't mean the pyramids in Egypt. I mean the nightclubs in Hong Kong and the outdoor bars in Phuket, Thailand. You discover very quickly that the world as a whole likes American money (this was in the mid to late 90s when the dollar was stronger than now) but they didn't much care for the person that was from America. Luckily most people did not know accents too well, so you found yourself saying that you were British, Canadian, or even South African. It sounds bad now, but at the time it was better than getting jumped by a dozen locals that felt the U.S. was meddling in their personnel governments affairs (I can't say I totally disagree with them).
There have been a couple times in our history where you could not exercise your constitutional rights to say what you wanted about the government. For those of you who feel I'm being unpatriotic, unless you have been shot at on two different continents in the name of the U.S., then your voice really doesn't count! One of the times was back before I was born. Senator McCarthy made it so that if you spoke out against the government you were blacklisted as a communist and would lose your house, job, friends and such. Plus, since you were on that list, you would not be able to get another job.
The second time was much more recently. After the 9/11 attacks in New York, if you spoke out against our fearless leader President Bush, you were branded a terrorist sympathizer. They created the Homeland Security Act and gave it power that reminded me a lot of what the gestapo did in WWII era Germany. One premium example comes to mind. The county music group The Dixie Chicks said something against the president and their record sales plummeted. I believe that the great American institution, Walmart, even pulled their Cds from the shelves. After the group made a public apology, everything was OK and you could go back to listening to them AND be a loyal American. What is that?
I wish I could say that I am proud to be an American. Unfortunately, it depends on the current goverment and what they are doing on the world stage, not to mention back home where we have unemployment and American children starving. So far under the current administration, yes, I am proud to be American. Under the previous one, I felt more like I was living in the police states that the oath I took when I joined the Marines had me swear to defend the U.S. against.