Posted on 07/23/2006 6:38:41 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
``IT'S TOUCHING that you're so concerned about the military in Iraq," a reader in Wyoming e-mails in response to one of my columns on the war. ``But I have a suspicion you're a phony. So tell me, what's your combat record? Ever serve?"
You hear a fair amount of that from the antiwar crowd if, like me, you support a war but have never seen combat yourself. That makes you a ``chicken hawk" -- one of those, as Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, defending John Kerry from his critics, put it during the 2004 presidential campaign, who ``shriek like a hawk, but have the backbone of a chicken." Kerry himself often played that card. ``I'd like to know what it is Republicans who didn't serve in Vietnam have against those of us who did," he would sniff, casting himself as the victim of unmanly hypocrites who never wore the uniform, yet had the gall to criticize him, a decorated veteran, for his stance on the war.
``Chicken hawk" isn't an argument. It is a slur -- a dishonest and incoherent slur. It is dishonest because those who invoke it don't really mean what they imply -- that only those with combat experience have the moral authority or the necessary understanding to advocate military force. After all, US foreign policy would be more hawkish, not less, if decisions about war and peace were left up to members of the armed forces. Soldiers tend to be politically conservative, hard-nosed about national security, and confident that American arms make the world safer and freer. On the question of Iraq -- stay-the-course or bring-the-troops-home? -- I would be willing to trust their judgment. Would Cindy Sheehan and Howard Dean?
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
I would prefer the next Republican candidate be a veteran, just so these endless chickenhawk screeches would end.
You are obviously a John Murtha fan, huh? He "served"...
Maybe you like John F'n Kerry? He "served"...
Algore? He "served"...
Merely enlisting doesn't make you worthy of respect as evidenced by these assclowns. Don't pretend that it does.
Are you a DU troll? You certainly post like one.
As I recall, Lincoln served as a captain in the Black Hawk war in 1832, so he had some military chops.
They basically say he "agonized" over it and did it to save poor non-white people so its ok.
Jeff Jacoby is 46 or 47 (born in 1959), so it's probably too late for him to enlist.
And don't forget Timothy McVeigh was a Gulf War veteran who won a Bronze Star Medal.
"Strangely, those in the military are almost unanimous in their opinion that we're doing the right thing in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that the MSM has it all wrong.
Funny that the Left disqualifies opinions from "Chicken Hawks" but is also deaf to those in the military whose opinion doesn't match theirs."
Remember in 2001, during the fiasco in Florida, Algore tried to disallow the votes of military personnel voting from overseas because he was quite sure they'd be nearly unanimously in favor of GWB.
One of the most direct wars was WW1. In 1914 the British Army recruiting offices could not keep pace. Two million men rushed to enlist. Cheering, shouting, for God, King and country. It has been estimated that seven out of every ten men went to the trenches.
The other three, were transport, cooks, signallers, medics, armourers and office wallahs. By 1916, the stories of the carnage came back. The lice, the wet, the gas, the barbed wire, the deaths. Full face in front of machine guns- or be shot for cowardice.
Conscription was then threatened, if men did not then come forward. One million, six hundred thousand individual requests for exemption ( deferals) were then received. The orders were then to conscript 'em all.
It may be a matter of chance, whether one is able to claim service in action. Others counted their luck and just served. For those of us that had that luck, we say we served, but add, " nothing fancy mind you".
A touchy subject. The lousy liberals know how to push buttons though. (Laughs).
'"Strangely, those in the military are almost unanimous in their opinion that we're doing the right thing in Iraq and Afghanistan, "
==
Sources? I'd like to read about this.'
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I'd guess you never served.
It seems more likely that he served in the Cavalry.
Sorry, pet peeve of mine.
"I smoked dope, went to college, got a high draft #, was nuts and deaf ...the military wisely chose to leave me alone.I dont claim to have have served my country but I can be as pro war as I want."
You didn't run away like Bubba did and like the sweeties up in Canada did. It sounds like if called, you would have gone, maybe not happily. You're ok in my book.
Ease up.
There's a reason that it's an all-volunteer military.
"I would prefer the next Republican candidate be a veteran, just so these endless chickenhawk screeches would end."
OTOH, I would prefer the next Republican candidate be a black woman who, though she has never served in the Military, has served over a large gaggle of Left Coast commies as the head of a major University. To quote a phrase "and you know who I'm talkin' 'bout."
"How do the leftist idiots explain away Klintoon's record as a chickenhawk?"
Retief, what happened to your game in the Open?
Shouldn't this go into the author is a retard catagory?
I am not disagreeing with you, but I think it is accurate to point out that those that are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are not allowed to disagree with their mission. I think a vast majority of them think we are doing the right thing, but they have to say that they do, even if they don't.
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