The great  majority of soldiers fighting this war are not doing so because they are poor and this is a chance for upward mobility. The fat cats sitting on their couches fanning the flames of war in their climate controlled luxury chambers have nothing to lose, except maybe higher prices to fill their SUVs.

That is a disgusting moral position. Chickenhawk is right on target, if not a mild epithet for those urging their less fortunate countryfolk to their deaths. The majority of those that have the fortune to come out alive will be scarred for life.

Regarding Chickenhawks:

The idea is that those who aren't themselves in the military (or willing to "send" their presumably adult children to war) have no right to an opinion about the war.

This is not the definition of a chickenhawk.

Truman, Harry S.  Capt. US Army & Lt.Col. US Army Reserve. President.  "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

En garde.  This website condemns & deletes comments that use profanity, which deserve deletion.  OK.  But if you want to play on the internet, you should be prepared for me to call you a cowardly, sniveling, frightened, wussy, chickenhawk.  Time to grow up, tinkerbell.

Neener, neener, neener.  If you think this is a debating club, go join one, wimp.  You want some cheese & crackers with your whine, you miserable shirker. Goldbrick. Malingerer.  You sniveling, drooling, mewling, retro- excuse for an alib-ike, go make your pseudo-heroic silly comments to . . . here's a phone card, call someone who cares.

If you believe in war, go fight one.  Oh, and I don't recommend the Texas Air National Guard because they've got a lot of planes over there just now.  Did you ever notice that, dovehawk?  Bu$h xliii signed up with the champagne squadron & spent YEARS on the sidelines.  But now, now that he's el jefe, the Chimp-in-Chief, the Deciderator, BigBossMan, the Kahuna, it's off to the frontlines for every Guard & Reserve unit in the USA.

Ya' ever considerate that, my delirious non-volunteer (no offense intended, avoiderator)?  Who's the Chimperator that uses Guard & Reserve personnel as if they were career combat commandos?  Yup!  The dude who missed his flight physical 3 years in a row (I know, made-up, bogus documents) & jumped ship (well, F-102) all the way to an Alabama political campaign after keeping the skies over Texas safe from the Viet Cong (some fight 'em over there, some--such as "Little Bootz"--stay home & fight 'em over here), the NVA (oops, that's North Vietnamese Army to the historically challenged) & the (ha-ha-ha-ha-ha) commie yellow tide.  [Little Bootz is a pun on the cowboy boots Bu$h xliii often wears as a comparison, by me, to the Roman emperor, Caligula, who was denigrated for his tiny feet.  To the credit of Caligula, he was not a cheerleader from Connecticut, although he was very likely a murderous chickenhawk.]

So, good buddy, if I, or some other troublemaker, calls you a "no good, cowardly, yellow, running dog, capitalist, war-mongering, fear merchant, chickenhawk, don't take it personally: it's just politics--you cry-baby, sob-sister.

Chicken - a bird

Hawk - a bird

All else is in the eye of the beholder.

"Chickenhawk" as an epithet is one of the dumber memes to have been created by war opponents. The idea is that those who aren't themselves in the military (or willing to "send" their presumably adult children to war) have no right to an opinion about the war. The converse is, of course, ignored; there is no concomitant obligation on the part of war opponents to have marched on Washington, laid down in front of tanks, or even served in the military themselves before they opine about war-related matters.

Repack Rider has been a frequent offender of the use of the term. He once wrote to me:

Million dollar question.  Are you planning to serve in the military, or have you already served?

The answer to that question will do a lot to define your character to the rest of us here.  You are either a coward or a patriot.

For y'see, if you accept the chickenhawk meme, those are the only two options: cowardice or patriotism. This is really an attempt to stifle discussion, as we shall see. Said Repack Rider:

If they don't care to participate in the war they are so "supportive" of, then then the only adjective that applies is "cowardly."

This is an absurd idea. It is an offense against (1) common sense, (2) our democratic traditions, (3) logic, and (4) the English language. I shall deal with each in turn, but first I confess: I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor do I ever intend to be enlisted in the military. Also, when I say "war supporter" I mean supporters of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, not people who support war for war's sake.

First, common sense, that which embodies our collective judgement strongly militates against any such idea. The concept that one must be engaged in an activity to have an opinion on it is ridiculous.

For example, we do not believe that police officers should set crime control policy--imagine what Fourth and Fifth Amendment jurisprudence would look like if they did! Moreover, what if only the poor were allowed to have valid opinions about welfare? I shudder to think what school policy would be like if we left it up to the students. And I'm curious to know what Jeralyn would say about leaving the penal code up to criminals (or maybe wardens?).

You get the picture. The idea that the only legitimate opinion about war comes from the military doesn't hold up so well. And this brings me to my second point:

Our democratic traditions are exactly contrary to the very idea. The Founders chose to leave control of military policy in the hands of the Legislative and Executive branches--two civilian brances of government. Now, I'm sure that there have been many ex-military Presidents, Senators, and Representatives (and maybe some that were and are in the reserves, if that isn't a separation of powers issue), but there has never been a requirement that they be. I personally am thankful that the Founders did not establish a military dictatorship. No doubt they could have tried.

In fact, I'm certain that we've had quite a few Presidents who were never in the military. And I'm sure they were still the Commander-in-Chief during their terms in office, despite the lack. I'm equally certain that they made speeches and proposals and arguments about military matters without being called a "coward" by the Left.

That's because, logically, one has nothing to do with the other. And I think that might be what frustrates me about the chickenhawk meme the most. It's a simple ad hominem, the most common logical fallacy.

Repack Rider gives this away when he responds to my lengthy comments with his "Million dollar question." He's only interested in one thing: me. That's not a response to argument, that's namecalling. And it's a shame that this is such a widespread phenomena, regarded as meaningful debate by much of the Left.

Finally, it is abuse of the English language to call war supporters "cowards." A coward is defined as "one who shows disgraceful fear or timidity." There are two main problems with calling war supporters coward.

First, you don't know a thing about the life and circumstances of the person at whom you are namecalling. In my case, all Repack Rider knew was that I was a young male advocate for the wars. Upthread, we have kdog and Militarytracy calling Michelle Malkin "coward" for not signing up. As if they know anything at all about her life.

That's not the only problem. This usage of "coward" is a perversion of the term. We consider it courageous to enlist in the military because the enlistee is voluntarily placing his life and health in the hands of others. But is it the opposite of courageousness to choose not to enlist? Apparently not for able-bodied Democrats. Instead, only able-bodied war supporters are cowards for not signing up. And what's the difference between the two groups? Just one thing: speech.

Somehow, Lefty proponents of the chickenhawk meme consider able-bodied proponents of war to have assumed an affirmative duty to enlist. When they refuse to do so, they are characterized as "cowards." I've already outlined the logical and common sensical problems with this consideration above.

But I suppose the chickenhawk meme is not meant to comport with common sense, or logic, or democracy, or anything really. It is deeply disingenuous to claim that not serving in the military says something about the character of war supporters that it doesn't say about war opponents. Calling someone a Chickenhawk is just a means of shutting down debate. It's juvenile. It's hardly effective. And it's a shame that it's tolerated and even encouraged around here.