From Libertarian Wiki

Chickenhawk is an epithet used in United States politics to criticize a politician, bureaucrat, or commentator who votes for war, supports war, commands a war, or develops war policy, but has not personally served in the military, especially one who opted out of a previous war on dubious grounds. It often has elitist connotations, suggesting that the person claims the right to tell others what to do, but has avoided ever doing the work himself. Chickenhawk is a compound of "chicken" as in "coward" and "hawk", a supporter of militaristic foreign policy.

The term is generally used in the ad hominem circumstantial context: since a so-called "chickenhawk" has not served in war, the implication is that that person is ill-equipped to support a war. This is usually argued to be the case because of the "chickenhawk's" lack of experience with the true costs of war, or the "chickenhawk's" perceived hypocrisy and lack of moral standing to force others to risk death or injury when they were not willing to risk their own life and limb when given the chance, or went to great lengths to avoid service.

The term was used during campaigning for the 2000 U.S. Presidential election when opponents of Dick Cheney, who never served in the United States armed forces, were upset by his criticism of the Clinton Administration's military policies. Coincidentally Bill Clinton himself not only never fought in combat, he is actually the only U.S. president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt to never have served in the military at all.

Points of debate

A number of counterarguments expose fallacies in the chickenhawk argument. Among these points are:

• The Founding Fathers explicitly designed the government of the United States of America so that the military would be subordinate to the will of the people through their elected representatives and the President of the United States of America who are answerable to the ordinary citizenry and the clear implication of the chickenhawk argument is that there ought not to be civilian control of the military.
  • In response, the United States embraced the ideal of the "citizen soldier" and universal military service until the end of the draft. Current leaders came of age in a period of near-universal military service, so their lack of service makes them exceptional, and their ability to avoid military service reveals their privileged position in our society.
• The idea that a veteran would have an inherent moral superiority with regard to military matters is baseless because a veteran could be guilty of war crimes.
  • There is no suggestion that all veterans have this moral superiority, just the large numbers of veterans who served honorably.
• Using the same logic that if only veterans have the experience and moral standing to advocate war, then only veterans have the experience and moral standing to oppose war.
  • If the chickenhawk argument focuses on the hypocracy and elitism of the chickenhawks, then this is irrelevant.
  • If it focuses on the experience of the chickenhawk, then a person could be opposed to war on the grounds that they are not confident that we could sucessfully wage the war, due to inexperience.
• The Chickenhawk argument does not, by its nature, respond to the substance of the hawks' arguments.
  • In public discussion, there is no need to respond to whatever the other person wants to talk about, and it would be irresponsible to respond to points that are useless to the audience and only distract from the important issues. When discussing the policy of a representative government, the character of the policy makers is the primary concern of the poeple, and the details of their policies are a secondary concern. Representative government is based on the assumption that the people are not albe to study and evaluate every aspect of the policy making process--instead, the people elect a small group of specialists to make policy.
• That civilians who are explicitly targeted in war should have the right to voice their views on the conduct of war regardless of whether or not they have served.
  • This argument is rarely applied to regular civilians, instead it is applied to elite opinion makers and especially, holders of political power.
• That a majority of the voting public is ineligible or unlikely to serve in combat, as it includes women, the elderly, the disabled, and non-closeted homosexuals. Using service as a litmus test for voicing a viewpoint would invalidate the views of most of the nation.
  • This is irrelevant if the chickenhawk argument is based on the notion of elitism or hypocracy.
• That Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt proved capable leaders of the military in wartime, despite having no personal military experience.
  • Only relevant to the extent that Wilson and Roosevelt took hawkish stances in foreign policy, and to the extent that the argument is based on lack of experience rather than elitism and hypocracy.
• That extending the Chickenhawk argument into other American political debates would mean that only women should comment on ovarian cancer, only men on prostate cancer, and so forth.
  • There's no disagreement on whether cancer is good or bad.
• Double standard. Many point out that use of the term by political liberals is applied hypocritically and not equally, notably as to Bill Clinton who avoided the draft during the Vietnam War by literally leaving the Western Hemisphere but ordered US soldiers to fight in numerous armed conflicts and even initially supported the invasion of Iraq. (It should be noted that many have argued that Clinton's presidency proved that the American voters do not care about a politician's military service or lack thereof since Clinton was elected and re-elected president by defeating decorated war heroes despite his complete lack of military service and intentional avoidance of the draft.)
  • This avoids the "substance" of the argument. If it should have been applied to Bill Clinton, then do so.

People who could never be considered chickenhawks include:

• Arizona Senator John McCain
• Former President George H. W. Bush
• Former President Gerald Ford
• Former Kansas Senator Bob Dole
• Texas Congressman Sam Johnson
• Political Commentator Oliver North
• General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell
• Nevada Congressman Jim Gibbons
• Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel
• Former California Congressman Duke Cunningham
• Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge
• Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson
• Maryland Congressman Wayne Gilchrest
• Alaska Senator Ted Stevens
• Virginia Senator John Warner
• Former Georgia Senator Zell Miller
• Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell
• Illinois Congressman Henry Hyde
• Minnesota Congressman John Kline
• Pennsylvania Congressman Joseph R. Pitts

External links

• Chickenhawk? by Michael Kelly
• "Armchair General" by Christopher Hitchens in Slate
• A fighting chance by Jonah Goldberg