http://www.counterpunch.com/tripp1015.htmlOctober 15, 2002
A Bird Lover's Guide to Chickenhawks
or Chickenhawk a la Mode
by BEN TRIPP
A chickenhawk, dear readers, is one of two things: either a voting-age pedophile, or a warmonger who has never gone to war. It's an unattractive word.
I have little to say about the Man/Boy Love crowd, just as I have little to say about the habits of cannibal chimpanzees. But there is much to be said about the other chickenhawks, the kind that can't wait to send someone else off to fight. Particularly as there's a bunch of them in Washington hell-bent on starting a war with Iraq, even as we speak.
When a war comes along, the civilian President, who is also Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces, must figuratively lead our nation into battle-whether or not he's been in combat, or the military, or even worn a garment with epaulettes. Abraham Lincoln, who invented the log, served in the Blackhawk war, long before the Blackhawks started making helicopters. Lincoln never saw a moment's combat, but did a lot of marching, and gained an appreciation for the price of war- he saw folks without scalps during a time when you were considered naked without a hat. When the Civil War broke out, President Lincoln wanted no part of it. But he listened to his generals, conducted the Northern campaign with diligence, and in a bond which has lasted some six score and eight years cemented our nation back together.
George W. Bush couldn't cement the handle back on a shaving mug. He served some of a tour of duty defending Alabama from the Viet Cong, but the only scalp he ever saw was firmly affixed to George McGovern's head. Yet Bush has a hunger for war (or at least Karl Rumsfeld does, which amounts to the same thing, as Rumsfeld rents the basement apartment in Bush's head). The war in Afghanistan doesn't count as a chickenhawk action, because we didn't pick the fight, it picked us. It was a defensive action, like burning a forest down because there's a beehive in it. But this war on Iraq is a chickenhawk's war, through-and-through. It's all about rattling sabers and being a Big Man (forget about the oil- let's do).
Chickenhawks are all of a type. They have money and privilege, often inherited. They're white and aging and deeply invested in power. Most of today's chickenhawks not only haven't been to war, but studiously avoided it by any means available. The excuses range from the embarrassing (Rush "Anal Cysts" Limbaugh) to the evasive (Dick "I Had Other Priorities In The 60's Than Military Service" Cheney). Donald Rumsfeld, like Bush, flew fighter jets, but missed both Korea and Vietnam due to poor scheduling. He did some wrestling, but all-torso Greco-Roman is not the same as grenades and bayonets.
What psychological aberration addicts a man to war when he's never even smoked one? Let's look at the inward motivations for a chickenhawk to initiate hostilities with Iraq. Power is a big factor, and the opportunity to amass more wealth; war as a distraction from domestic matters is also in play. There are natural resources to be had, and a vast scheme for realigning the Middle East through 'regime change' (a bloodless term for a nasty business, as "abattoir" is to "slaughter house"). There is even a small chance that self-defense, in a 'Minority Report' kind of way, is at work. All of these points have been cried from the housetops by fierce orators declaiming across the dismal alleys of American discourse, and in my opinion they dignify with statecraft what is ultimately a sordid personal problem: chickenhawks have never entered manhood.
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