A Chickenhawk Listing

[debbie mannas]

Hey, I thought this site was quite funny. I cant post the list cause it's goes wonky, but go ahead, have a read.



As we prepare for another war...



www.nhgazette.com/chickenhawks.html



Chickenhawk Notes

Definition



A chickenhawk is a term often applied to public persons - generally male - who (1) tend to advocate, or are fervent supporters of those who advocate, military solutions to political problems, and who have personally (2) declined to take advantage of a significant opportunity to serve in uniform during wartime.



Some individuals may qualify more for their political associations than for any demonstrated personal tendency towards bellicosity. Some women may be included for exceptional bellicosity.



There is another, less savory definition of the term chickenhawk. It is not relevant to this discussion; we intend no such associations to be drawn here.



This list is provisonal. The management of the Gazette is proud to have served the vital public function of assembling the best known list of American chickenhawks, but we confess - we declare and emphasize - that we have not the resources to tend to it properly. Therefore we declare it provisional: we acknowledge there may be faults - hell, we know there are.



Errors and Omissions



Anyone falsely characterized as a chickenhawk is particularly welcome to correct any errors. We encourage every interested American to feel free to nominate chickenhawks, or to fill in missing information. Nominations are solicited from all sources.



History



We assembled an earlier version of this list by merging two or three less complete lists. We then added more than a score of names ourselves. We posted the list to the Gazette's website in March, where it seemed to catch the public's interest. Twenty or more names were then added to create the list as you see it here.





Chickenhawk Details

George W. Bush: Yeah, right. He was in uniform. Big deal. See www.awolbush.com



Bill Clinton: He may have launched a few cruise missiles to distract us from a dalliance with a girl half his age, but our judges believe he wasn't bellicose enough to make the cut. Your mileage may vary.



Tom Delay: "DeLay's excuse for having a yellow streak as wide as the Rio Grande down his back is truly imaginative, if you take a delight in the bizarre. The man who believes Dioxin is good for you (again, we are not making this up), claims that he volunteered for Vietnam, but all the spots were taken up by minorities, so he was not allowed to serve. Clearly all those years of exposure to toxic chemicals had some serious side effects on 'Ol Tom." - Esther and/or Jeff Clark



Sean Hannity: Too young for 'Nam, but anyone that bellicose could have horned in on Panama or Desert Storm somehow.



Paul Harvey: A complicated case. We're working on a dossier.



Trent Lott: "Dear Sir or Madam, Please be advised that Trent "Cheerleader" Lott is NOT a senator from Louisiana as you have mislabeled him but rather from the state of Mississippi. We have enough problems in Louisiana without someone thinking this toupee wearing, right wing fop is our Senator! - Please correct your entry and keep up the good work! - Rev. Kenneth M. Kafoed"



Ted Nugent: An amusing case. We're working on a dossier.



Richard Perle: We're working on a dossier.



Ronald Reagan: A complicated case. He remains listed because our judges believe his bellicosity outweighs his relatively painless service.



Pat Robertson: As we recall it, Pete McCloskey charged that Robertson's father got him posted to Japan shortly after his unit arrived in Korea. Robertson responded with a libel suit, which he later dropped. "[His own] libel suit [against fellow former Marine Pete McCloskey] turned out to be an embarrassment to Robertson. During depositions, Paul Brosnan, Jr., a retired university professor who served with Robertson in Korea, backed up [Congressman Pete] McCloskey's claim and went even further, asserting that the televangelist had consorted with prostitutes and had sexually harassed a Korean cleaning girl who worked in the barracks." --Rob Boston, The Most Dangerous Man in America, Prometheus Books, 1996.



Steven Spielberg: We read his films as ultimately adding to the glorification of war. Perhaps we're wrong. This nomination has been challenged, and is open to debate.



John Wayne: "Another notable Hollywood faker to consider is Marion Morrison. Born in 1907, he decided to jump past his competitors like Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda by using his married status as a reason to avoid volunteering for the cause. As John Wayne, a phony name for a phony man, he played a lot of war heroes, while he ran away from anything resembling patriotism, except the pose. - Ray Duray





Another Sort of Chickenhawk Altogether

We realized with a shudder today that with all the noise we've making about "chickenhawks" - who are in general a less-than inspiring lot - we've neglected to mention a self-described chickenhawk of an altogether different sort: Robert Mason.



Robert Mason was an Army helicopter pilot with the First Cavalry in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966. His best-selling memoir "Chickenhawk" will likely remain the definitive portrayal of the war as seen from the pilot's seat of a Huey.



In 1984, when Mason's "Chickenhawk" was on the New York Times best seller list, its author was in prison for trying to sail a boat full of marijuana into the country. How an ace Army helicopter pilot became a drug smuggler is revealed in Mason's second book, "Chickenhawk: Back in the World."



It will come as no surprise to Mason's fellow veterans that PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - had something to do with the course of his life after the war. Mason's aptly-named wife Patience wrote a valuable book of her own, Recovering From the War: A Guide for all Veterans, Family Members, Friends, and Therapists, published by Viking in 1990.



The fact that the term "chickenhawk" applies to belligerent draft dodgers like Saxby Chambliss and Tom Delay, and to men like Robert Mason, is, as far as we can tell, simply further proof that if you follow something to its extreme, you may meet its opposite.









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The assembler of this information meditates on his own service in Vietnam, in

Cognitive Dissonance and Moral Imperatives, or, From One Morgue to Another



The alleged "gentlemen" listed in this database are here because they share three qualities: bellicosity (a warlike manner or temperament), public prominence, and a curious lack of wartime service when others their age had no trouble finding the fight. (Sorry, Dan and George W. and Dan Q. - your safe, cushy National Guard slots won't help you now.) The fact that they's almost all Republicans is ... well, curious, don't you think? No doubt this list is incomplete. Readers are encouraged to nominate their favorite overlooked chickenhawks.