I think being proud of your country is like loving your family, friends, and neighbors. Just like the people in your life aren't perfect and you're not always gonna like what they do, you still want them to do well because you see the value in having them in your lives. Similarly, you can appreciate your country, the government that runs it, the citizens that are a part of it, the land that is in it, and want all components to succeed and create good things for the world. It's okay to be upset when bad decisions are made, through ignorance, carelessness, even malice. What's important though is continuing to try and encourage goodness and productivity and foster a mentality that lends itself to that goal.
The main difference to me is the examples you give are people, a country is not. You can be proud of what some people in your country have done, for example, but I think it's dangerous to lose sight of the distinction.
The distinction doesn't matter. What matters is discovering what makes something good and learning how to further foster that goodness. That means understanding that just because someone or something is flawed, it doesn't mean that they or it are without value, or more importantly, that redemption is out of reach.
That's a pretty heavy question that's taken people lifetimes to explore. :) I think long and short of it though, is that it's important for us to not lose faith in ourselves as individuals, to not lose faith in eachother as individuals, and to realize that changes of heart can come from the most unexpected of places and at the most unexpected of times. Because these changes of heart can be unexpected, can be positive or negative, and often seem to come at times when we're most vulnerable to the world around us, it's important to try to create an environment whenever possible that allows for positive changes and developments to take root. That said, it's still important to be guarded about who we trust and why, when and how we trust them, etc. Sometimes people make mistakes, which is unfortunate. Sometimes people act with ill will and malice, which is regrettable. By making good and healthy decisions about how we conduct ourselves around others and how we allow others to conduct themselves around us, we can go far in protecting ourselves, them, and society as a whole. Personally, I think the same philosophy applies to institutions, whether we're talking about families, schools, corporations, governments, or what have you. The scale might be different, in degrees of severity, time, etc., but I think much of the same mechanisms are there, as these institutions are a collective extension of our own individual humanities. Edit: Dala once played an amazing podcast about how over a long stretch of time people's brains literally change. It was all in the context of actual criminals and was very compelling. I'll have to see if I can't find the episode and share it with Hubski.
Invisibilia: The Personality Myth. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/24/481859662/invisibilia-is-your-personality-fixed-or-can-you-change-who-you-are A new season of Invisibilia is about to start. If you listen to podcasts, this should be in your feed. If you don't, this is a great place to start a listening habit.