ChickenHawk Coalition, Part II: It has drawn much comment that a disproportionate number of supporters for the proposed adventure in Iraq, from the President, the Vice President, et al, were men who somehow managed to avoid military service when God and Country called during the Vietnam War. The term "chicken hawks" has been used to describe such characters, replacing the less evocative phrase, "War Wimps", that was so popular during the Reagan Era. I believe that such a term should be used sparingly, not only because the term refers, in a completely different context, to pedophilia. People change their views as they grow older and gather more experience, for reasons not always connected to whether they fear being sent to die in an ugly war. In addition, the current conflicts in the Middle East differ from Vietnam, just as Vietnam differed from WWII. One should not be forever wedded to a dovish worldview just because one opposed the Vietnam War.

However, it is also largely true that the hawks in the Bush Administration avoided service in Vietnam not because they were too busy organizing for the SDS, as this list makes clear. There is reason to be skeptical of armchair generals who spent the late-60's at grad school or in some cushy Air National Guard position (or, in the case of W., not spending time at same), or nursing some convenient weight problem. The reasoning of the Perle/Wolfowitz/Cheney clique as to why they never served their country in battle reminds me of what the late, great Sonny Liston supposedly said in 1963 when asked why he wasn't joining his then arch-rival, Floyd Patterson, in Birmingham to march against segregation: "Cause I ain't got no dog-proof ass".