HESIOD THEOGENY RESPONDS to the “Shropshire challenge.”
It’s not a bad post, but I think that Hesiod and a lot of others misunderstand the seriousness of pro-war people. You can know that people get killed in a war and still be for one, after all. It doesn’t have to be a good thing — only the best of the available alternatives. And I think that’s the case now.
UPDATE: Here’s an interesting comment from a reservist bound for duty, posted on Stephen Green’s site:
From what I observe around me, most of the people I talk to day in and day out are simply scared of doing anything violent. I am a reservist who is leaving relatively soon and the overall sentiment is “you don’t have to go do you?”, “that stinks doesn’t it?”, “can’t you get out?” Depressed isn’t even close to how I feel.
The same guy comments later in the same thread:
I would like to thank all who wished me well with my upcoming deployment. I really appreciate it.
They killed 3,000 of my country’s men and women, The time for talking is over.
Yeah, the email I get from military folks seems to be realistically pro-war. Not a one has written to say “I don’t want to fight but warmongering civilians are making me.” In fact, the only negative email I’ve ever gotten from someone in the military was this, and it’s not even close. The main worry seems to be that civilians will screw things up — as in 1991 — by not letting them finish the job, not that civilians are too anxious for war. Which is why I think the whole “chickenhawk” argument is bogus in the extreme.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Hesiod Theogeny emails that it’s “dishonest” for me to post this reservist’s comment as a response to the “chickenhawk” complaints, but I’m still not quite clear why. He says that he supports a war against Al Qaeda, but not a war against Iraq. My understanding of the whole “chickenhawk” argument was that anti-war types thought it hypocritical to support a war when you’re not going to fight in it. Now, it seems, that it’s only hypocritical to support some wars if you’re not going to fight in them. To me, this position seems to be completely incoherent, and to make the “chickenhawk” name-calling even more nonsensical than before. But maybe I’m still misunderstanding things.