A "chicken hawk" is one who strikes the pose of a warrior, who imputes the personal courage of a soldier in combat to themselves by virtue of the fact that they are in favor of sending that soldier off to war, or who parades around with the pretense of personal courage and resolve while assuming none of the risks. And a "chicken hawk" will, conversely, attempt to depict those who oppose such wars as being weak, spineless and cowardly even though the war opponents are not seeking to avoid any personal risk to themselves, but instead, are arguing against subjecting their fellow citizens to what they perceive are unnecessary dangers.It's not being pro-war without serving that makes you a chickenhawk, it's pretending that being pro-war makes you equivalent in some manly way to the actual soldiers risking their lives. Sounds about right to me.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Tastes Like Chickenhawk
Glenn Greenwald clarifies the meaning of "chickenhawk":
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5 comments:
Sounds like Rummy's the King of the Chickenhawks.
Hmm. I think of Rummy as more of a prince of Chickenhawks. I'd put a guy like Cheney or Rove on the throne. That lady who was dumping all over Paul Hackett's military service (Mean Jean something or other) could be his queen.
Cheney gets all hot & bothered about POWER, and Rove about scheming.
But Rummy's a regular Buck Turgison describing the B-52 on a straffing run.
Oh, except for the part about Turgison actually being a general. I haven't looked it up, but I wouldn't be surprised if Rummy actually served. Though I din't think he saw any combat. lemme check.
He served from 1954-1957. Although he was already 21 when Korea ended, he joined up . . . the following year, at the age of 22.
Guess that he too had other priorities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld#Military_service
That Rummy. Very true, he loves to talk the jargon of war, but at least he's got an excuse - he is kinda in charge of the War Department.
And he's as guilty as the others of accusing anti-Iraq war types of cowardice, but when it comes to sheer quality of the depths to which a true chickenhawk can stoop, Cheney and Rove both have him beat in my book.
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