World-famous chicken hawks: (l to r)Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney and Bill O’Reilly.
Being bored, really, really bored, a few nights ago, I switched the channel to Bill O’Reilly’s TV show. I can take him for maybe five minutes at the most. On this particular show he was browbeating his guest, an Iraq War veteran who spent nine years in the military. This guy belonged to some organization that is trying to get military recruiters off school campuses or something of the like.
Perhaps it is the Navy veteran in me that makes me think that kids should have access to recruiters in order to make their own decisions about their lives, or deaths in some instances. The armed forces isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But it can be beneficial for those who join and want to make it a rewarding experience. Unfortunately, those who do sign up may have to go to Iraq, Afghanistan or whomever we are fighting this week and face the possibility they might come home in a box.
Also being a veteran, I feel people have every right to protest whatever they like. And if someone protests the war in Iraq, which I also think was a gigantic mistake, they have every right. I would say that especially someone who had served in that war has more than earned their right to protest.
So it was infuriating to hear O’Reilly who is really good at bullying and not letting anyone whose view is different get across their point. Perhaps I should not feel this way, but it is very irksome to hear those partisans who are the biggest cheerleaders for our involvement in Iraq and never served a day in uniform say how much they support the troops yet dismisses those veterans who protest the war as pond scum. Chicken hawk-ism is the epitome of condescension. It is reminiscent of “Ol’ Massa” looking out for his chattel.
Make no mistake about it, I do not think that everyone who supports the war and have not served in the military is a chicken hawk just as I feel everyone has the right to disagree and protest those matters that so drive them. But I do feel that those who have served their country have earned a little respect and not a little “pat on the head and away now.”
Okay. That’s my rant for the week.