Sept. 28, 2014
Reality Check
The “Mainstream” Press Protects Chicken HawksBy A. Peter Bailey
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Once again the American press is allowing chicken hawks and armchair warriors to rant about the U.S. going to war in the Middle East without asking them one very basic question. That question is whether a single son, grandson, brother, sister, niece, or nephew of the trash-talking warmongers will actually fight to defend the national security of the U.S., which they insist is under imminent threat from evildoers.
That should be one of the first questions asked of any politician, think tank or talk show host who clamors for war. Giant-sized chicken hawks sophomoric Sean Hannity, pompous Sen. Lindsey Graham and Vietnam War evader, Dick Cheney, and members of their families, should be among the first to sign up militarily to confront ferocious enemies of the U.S. if they really believe that national security is at stake.
If they don’t sign up, it’s not being unreasonable to conclude that they don’t believe what they are shouting at every opportunity. If they do believe it, yet are unprepared to put their lives on the line in combat to destroy the haters of “freedom and liberty,” then they are hypocritical cowards who happily advocate war from their comfortable homes and offices while the sons and daughters of working class and low income families are being killed and maimed in wars of choice.
Their refusal to fight in wars they so ardently promote brings to mind an astounding and revealing observation attributed to General William C. Westmoreland in a 1993 issue of The Richmond Times-Dispatch. After reading it, I wrote the following in a column for Ray Boone’s Richmond Free Press:
“At a forum on the Vietnam War at Hampden-Sydney College, Gen. William C. Westmoreland, who commanded troops in the war from 1964 to 1968, was quoted as saying ‘In the scope of history, Vietnam is not going to be a big deal. It won’t float to the top as a major endeavor.’
One wonders how relatives of the nearly 60,000 soldiers killed in Vietnam feel about Gen. Westmoreland’s statement. In the 1960s and 1970s, we were told it was a big deal and a major endeavor.”
One wonders if some 30 years from now one of today’s commanding generals will describe the wars of choice in Iraq, Afghanistan and, now, Syria as being no big deal or major endeavor in the scope of history. Despite the fact that many thousands of people, including American military personnel, have been killed or maimed in them.
One also wonders if any member of the so-called mainstream press will be bold and honest enough to ask one of the rabid warmongers if a member of his or her family is now or ever will be fighting to protect national security that they are consistently squealing about.