Why people become chickenhawks

[Blackburn]

What makes chickenhawkery such a distinctly American phenomenon is our culture's coupling of aggressive militarism with a lack of anything even resembling shared sacrifice. Quite bizarrely, we celebrate those who rhetorically promote wars as "tough" and "strong" without requiring those very warmongers to walk their talk. Shielded from any personal risk of injury or death, the chickenhawk is thus permitted to wrap himself in an American flag and goose step his way through television studios as the alleged personification of patriotic bravery.


For years, chickenhawkery's roots in this culture of unshared sacrifice have been a matter of theory -- albeit a logical, well-grounded theory. But now, thanks to a comprehensive new study, we have concrete data underscoring the hypothesis. It suggests that many Americans' aggressively pro-war ideology may fundamentally rely on their being physically shielded/disconnected from the human cost of war.

http://anonym.to/?http://www.salon.com/news/david_sirota/2011/06/29/chickenhawk_origins/index.html

[GPDP]

That makes so much sense it's not even funny. Before 9/11, the last time the US got attacked was Pearl Harbor, and that was a military base in Hawaii. There was also the Civil War, but so much bullshit remains unsolved from that era that many people failed to draw any proper conclusions about war from it. Before that, there was the War of 1812 and the War of Independence, and that's it. A good track record compared to all the wars over in Europe, ain't it? Certainly too few events spread over too long a time for many to feel the pain of warfare.

Overall, most Americans know nothing of the costs of war, so of course it's easy for many of them to buy into the jingoism and beat the war drums accordingly. They never had their homes and cities bombed to the bedrock like we regularly do to countless countries on a regular basis.

[Fulanito de Tal]

Nice find. I said in an earlier post that if I were supreme leader of the US (relevant to that thread's topic), I would have every push for war up for election. Those that voted yes to war, go fight it. Of course, they also have to pay for all of the equipment they use too.