{"id":2908,"date":"2002-09-05T12:10:38","date_gmt":"2002-09-05T17:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=2908"},"modified":"2002-09-05T12:10:38","modified_gmt":"2002-09-05T17:10:38","slug":"chicken_hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/09\/05\/chicken_hawks.html","title":{"rendered":"Chicken Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s been a growing thread of discussion of late in the national dialog to the effect that we shouldn’t go to war in Iraq because the military is against it. The term “chicken hawk” is being applied to folks who have not served in the military, or who served in cushy sideline jobs rather than in the front trenches, and who now want to make the decision to “send our boys to fight on foreign shores.” One gets the impression of cool, professional, wise military men, appalled and aghast at a bunch of draft-dodging yahoos and political operatives over in the White House. <\/p>\n

This article<\/a> does a fine job of tearing apart this particular line of reasoning.<\/p>\n

The first variant is that the generals are all against war, and if they are, they must be right — particularly if their opponents are civilians who have not served. Does the same work in reverse? If the generals and admirals favored a preemptive attack on Cuba in 1962 — as many did — were they right then because they were flag officers? Of course not. The expertise of generals lies chiefly in the operational, not the strategic, sphere — how to wage war, not whether it should be fought.
\nThere is no evidence that generals as a class make wiser national security policymakers than civilians. George C. Marshall, our greatest soldier statesman after George Washington, opposed shipping arms to Britain in 1940. His boss, Franklin D. Roosevelt, with nary a day in uniform, thought otherwise. Whose judgment looks better? A few soldiers become great diplomats or great politicians; others are abject failures. Most avoid the field altogether. Military careers spent in hierarchical, rule-bound, tightly controlled organizations are not necessarily the best preparation for accurately judging the fluid world of politics at home and abroad.<\/p>\n

Good reading. It doesn’t answer whether a war on Iraq would be the right course or not, but it deals with side issue that can distraction from that question.<\/p>\n

(via Instapundit<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s been a growing thread of discussion of late in the national dialog to the effect that we shouldn’t go to war in Iraq because the military is against it….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1553,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/12\/missing_links_3.html","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":0},"title":"Missing links","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 12-Dec-01 11:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"The Pentagon has finally confirmed at least one disease scientifically linked to Gulf War service -- Lou Gehrig's disease. 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Some were drafted; others volunteered. Some were drawn by patriotic service; others by the benefits. Some joined in times of peace; others in times of war. Some were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/memorial%2Bday.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/memorial%2Bday.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/memorial%2Bday.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13413,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/12\/23\/sadly_we_do_know_dick.html","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":3},"title":"Sadly, we do know Dick","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 23-Dec-08 3:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Dick Cheney gave a farewell interview to Chris Wallace at Fox News (transcript). Others have written of his contempt in the interview for public opinion\u00a0(\"We've been here for eight years...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47936,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/thank-you-veterans.html","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":4},"title":"Thank you, Veterans","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Nov-14 1:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Not everyone who joins the armed forces does so out of a wellspring of altruistic patriotism. But all who do are, in fact, putting themselves in harm's way and into the service of the nation, one way or the other. So I thank you all for that, on this Veterans\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Toledo_1951a%5B1%5D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":50273,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/03\/us-them-and-redefinitions-of-who-is-us.html","url_meta":{"origin":2908,"position":5},"title":"Us, Them, and Redefinitions of Who Is Us","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 3-May-15 11:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Not having served in the Marines, I cannot vouch for this article. 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