Chickenhawks and Patriots

Chicken hawks and Patriots exist among us. What is interesting about “chickenhawks” is a rare sort of politician who never served, could have served, decided not to serve. Then they have the nerve to parrot war talking points, to the degree of some politicians, like Trump, to claim that they’re “more military than the military.” Which is surprising since the only exit strategy for Trump was to dodge the draft five times. That’s not right, and so do other “chickenhawks” like Senator Markwayne Mullin, who at 28 decided at 9/11 to go into the plumbing business instead of enlisting in the very war he cheered on. I guess it makes sense that you didn’t feel like dying in some shithole country, and so on. I respect that, as someone who served one tour in Iraq and Afghanistan, didn’t want to be there that much either (more so in Iraq, I loved my Afghanistan tour, and still consider it the best time of my life).

I’ve been deployed to Montana for firefighting, to Kuwait before the 2003 invasion (the tenth anniversary of the liberation of Kuwait), and to a Multinational Forces Observer deployment to Egypt. Other than Montana, every other place was a shithole. Some of the veterans also deployed to those shitholes and saw combat, too. While admittedly I didn’t get shot at as much as some people, I do remember bullets whizzing by occasionally. But this blog entry isn’t to extoll my service, but to question those who have served, and why they support these chickenhawks. I don’t understand it; they view Trump as Patriotic, and if Trump had not dodged the draft, I would agree that, as a politician, he would be a Patriot. But a good friend of mine who served in a non-combat role in Vietnam posted a meme extolling that Trump was a Patriot. I’m sorry but I didn’t want to go, but I did, kicking and screaming during the “search for WMDs” (which I didn’t do, other than nation building).

But more or less, it boggles the mind how some people look at these politicians, and jeer and pump the fist about the current Iran war. Some friends support Israel. I did, but not anymore. They had their bad day at the hands of the Nazis, and I will forever feel empathy for the six million Jews who died during that horrific chapter. But the October 2023 fight changed my mind. Sure, Palestinians engaged in terrorism, and they also got fucked with by Israel. I forgot the book I read, but Israel just toyed and fucked with the Palestinians, and they wonder why more than just following Hezbollah or Hamas was the reason why they turned to terror. They had no choice, and instead of working to improve the situation that they were in, Israel just decided to level Gaza as a way of saying “Fuck You”, and murder innocents as well. I can see special ops missions, which do drag on, but you’re not convincing me otherwise.

But this isn’t about Israel, it’s those chickenhawks and Patriots who follow leaders that shit on people, and they love it. I was on a Facebook page by Desert Storm Veterans, and while I have a mostly negative opinion about that war, somebody extolling Trump as a patriot needs to just go. He’s not a patriot, he’s mentally unstable, and not nowhere a leader. Even when I was a mediocre Sergeant in the US Army, I led better than Trump ever did. However the point is that politicians just need to stop posturing and set an example, by not posturing as the meme goes, the recruiting center was open when you were young, and I think that if you chose to be a politician that’s your business, but don’t make it like you’re some fucking hero who “sacrificed”, because real men and women sacrificed, but you insist on they sacrifice and you don’t. That’s chickenshit behavior and it needs to stop.