Is saying chickenhawk another way to shut people up in a debate?

Question

I hear that everywhere and when some one is not in the military and talks about it they use that word is it just ammo to shut a person up?

Answer 1

Nope. A chickenhawk is a person that SQUAWKS about how much they "support" a war, but won't actually put their own life on the line and go fight.

Does that describe you?

Answer 2

Well it is certainly a pejorative term.  It is generally applied to someone who is big on war but has never served in combat.  It has its root in the Vietnam War.  We had a draft back then and a lot of people that were and are pro war avoided serving in combat roles by using loopholes in the system to avoid combat.  Tow prominent examples are d**k Cheney who used draft deferments do avoid service until he was past draft age, and G W Bush who used his father's connections to get a slot in the national guard.  The guard was never deployed during this war because our leaders in washington knew that mobilizing the guard would stir up too much opposition.

Another common chicken hawk tactic was to get in the service and use political pull to get a safe rear echelon job like a public information officer for a state side base.  I think we have several prominent politicians who went this route.

Again, the term is not applied to everyone that avoided combat jobs, only those that did so, but now want us to use war as a toll of diplomacy, not a weapon of last resort.

It is certainly not a way to encourage debate.  Insults never are.