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Gingrich had valid reasons for getting a deferment during Nam. (married)
So did Dick Cheney - health issues.
Biden got deferments also.
Clinton didnt have any reason for evading the draft.
Gingrich had valid reasons for getting a deferment during Nam. (married)
So did Dick Cheney - health issues.
Biden got deferments also.
Clinton didnt have any reason for evading the draft.
Well, first they have to be hawks, don't they? Presidents have to do things as CinC, but I've never heard Clinton referred to as a hawk
Gingrich had valid reasons for getting a deferment during Nam. (married)
So did Dick Cheney - health issues.
Biden got deferments also.
Clinton didnt have any reason for evading the draft.
Obama was never called on to serve and therefore cannot be a chickenhawk.
The term arose in connection with Vietnam. The reason being that Vietnam was such a controversial war, fought with draftees, and an issue that divided the generation of an age to fight it. Many of us were against the war. Many of us were for it. To be for it and go to fight in it was one thing -- wrong-headed but honorable. But to be for it only if someone else had to do the fighting and bleeding was something else again. The term "chickenhawk" was invented to describe such a person.
I don't think Cheney was of draft age, so he doesn't count. George W. Bush definitely does, though: the National Guard, and especially the Air Guard, was one of those "outs" provided for the young and well-connected. As the son of a rich man and a Congressman, Bush had escape hatches that many did not. There was of course nothing illegal about this (although there should have been), but his willingness to make use of such an escape hatch while at the same time favoring the war and condemning those opposed to it brands him as a chickenhawk.
There were so many ways that well-connected people could obtain draft deferments that "legitimate" reasons existing mean nothing -- the question is, if you believed in the war, were you willing to do your duty (as you saw it, or should have) and serve? Or did you only seek to make others do so while you stayed home safe?
What is a Chickenhawk?
What is a Chickenhawk?
A sabre-rattling armchair warrior who advocates going to war, yet has never served nor has any intention of serving. You 'll often find them posting in threads on Iran or the Middle East in general.
Gingrich had valid reasons for getting a deferment during Nam. (married)
So did Dick Cheney - health issues.
Biden got deferments also.
Clinton didnt have any reason for evading the draft.
Well, first they have to be hawks, don't they? Presidents have to do things as CinC, but I've never heard Clinton referred to as a hawk
because he isn't one.
What is a Chickenhawk?
A sabre-rattling armchair warrior who advocates going to war, yet has never served nor has any intention of serving. You 'll often find them posting in threads on Iran or the Middle East in general.
You'll often find them in the White House too - like Clinton, Obama.
Well, first they have to be hawks, don't they? Presidents have to do things as CinC, but I've never heard Clinton referred to as a hawk
because he isn't one.
Well of course not, because he is a Democrat. Even though he took us to war in Bosnia. Funny how that works. If a Repub uses troops in combat, he is a "hawk" but if a Dem does, like Obama did in Libya, they aren't hawks.