ALL politicians on one level or another play the game of using the military for it's PR value. Some are in your face, others are more subtle and it's the latter who I consider the more dangerous.
Here and
here are just 2 other examples of using the military to drive an emotion in order to direct people's thinking. Manufacturing Consent is not by any means the lone side of a single coin.
Maybe Palin's crime if it were one is that she's not as sophisticated in using such tools covertly to hide the agenda or the intended target audience doesn't require such sophistication in the first place!