Any more than are killing and murder, or sex and rape. Residents of countries with uncommon or even wholly unique positive qualities (and most countries have at least a few) can and should honor both the qualities AND the country that produced them. There is nothing sick in that. Likewise there is nothing wrong with pursuing and advocating the best interest of ones country, provided it is not at the expense of others. National welfare is not a zero sum game, or even necessarily competitive, so one countrys gain need not be anothers loss. In cases of technology, art and political science one countrys gain can often benefit many others.

Obviously the Axis Powers agressive nationalism was indisputably negative, but that does not make the patriotic resistance that defeated it equally so. Indeed, when one considers Britain withstood the Nazis completely alone for nearly two YEARS before the Americans and Soviets entered the war, it is hard to deny Churchills assertion "that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'" Patriotism, in itself, is a fine thing; one should honor their countrymens past and present accomplishments and contributions, seek to provide their nation new ones and defend its security and prosperity from all assaults, foreign or domestic. It is only when constructive wholesome patriotism gives way to destructive predatory nationalism that problems arise.

One might even say patriotism is the surest defence against nationalism, since sufficiently advancing ones own nation removes much of the insecure nationalist motive to degrade and diminish others. If our own country is strong, prosperous and free we have little to fear from others being equally so. Nationalism is typically, if ironically, tacit admission of failure, the conclusion that a country cannot hope to stand equally with others on its own merits, and instead can only do so by bringing others down to its own miserable level. Thus, far from being synonymous, nationalism and patriotism are in many ways antithetical to each other.

A convenient example from personal experience: Few would deny that, on a per capita basis, nationalism is much stronger in America than in Norway (one of the most internationalist countries in existence.) Yet, having lived in both, I can tell you the average Norwegian is FAR more likely to prominently fly their countrys flag from a long pole in their front yard. That does not represent a desire to subjugate Sweden, Finland or any other nation, but a justifiable respect and admiration for the sovereignty and freedom Norwegians earned by centuries of painful sacrifice, and defended at considerable cost throughout the Second World War and thereafter.