Generation Chickenhawks : Brave College Republicans

The following video showing the generation chickenhawks brave college Republicans at a national convention was originally produced by Max Blumenthal and posted at the HuffingtonPost.

In my view it offers a sad commentary on the mental health of and the ability to reason by a good many of our elitist college chickenhawk generation. These are the type of people who are being groomed to show leadership ability and to lead our nation within a few years. Yet, all they can manage to do when asked questions about the war in Iraq is to spit out Republican talking points.

I heard the same simple minded reasoning about the war in Vietnam. “If we don’t fight them there (the Vietcong) we will fight them here”. Like the poor Vietnamese had the means to invade the US. All they wanted was to have their own country back and to run it their own way. Isn’t that what the Iraqis and Afghans want?

God help us all. The United States is in big trouble from the rot within. Perhaps a return of the draft would bring a good dose of reality back into the American “homeland”. I confess that without the draft I would have never served in Vietnam. But because I did serve I know first hand that war is an ugly business that destroys and ends a lot of lives. Armed with that deep understanding I believe that if I ever had the responsibily for war planning, unlike chickenhawks Donald Rumsfield and Dick Cheney, I would do all in my power to prevent a conflict, not fire one up just because I could.

And most wars are fought for what? So that a few well connected war profiteers can become even more wealthy? Few wars have served any real purpose except for that sad reason. Take World War One, for example, the “war to end all wars”. All that war accomplished, at the expense of over 50 million dead, was to set the stage for World War two.

As long as the majority of the generation chickenhawk elitist young men and women get a free ride when it comes to actually serving their country in the military we Americans will never correct our tendency to bring so much misery and suffering to the peoples of third world nations. All in the name of national security and freedom and democracy, of course.

Watch the video and you will see exactly what I mean.

===== Originally posted on the HuffingtonPost =====

Originally posted on the HuffingtonPost.

On July 13, 2007, I visited Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, where the bodies of American soldiers killed in Iraq were freshly interred. Afterwards, I headed across the street to the Sheraton National Hotel, owned by right-wing Korean cult leader Sun Myung-Moon, to meet some of the war’s most fervent supporters at the College Republican National Convention.

In conversations with at least twenty College Republicans about the war in Iraq, I listened as they lip-synched discredited cant about “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.” Many of the young GOP cadres I met described the so-called “war on terror” as nothing less than the cause of their time.

Yet when I asked these College Republicans why they were not participating in this historical cause, they immediately went into contortions. Asthma. Bad knees from playing catcher in high school. “Medical reasons.” “It’s not for me.” These were some of the excuses College Republicans offered for why they could not fight them “over there.” Like the current Republican leaders who skipped out on Vietnam, the GOP’s next generation would rather cheerlead from the sidelines for the war in Iraq while other, less privileged young men and women fight and die.

Along with videographer Thomas Shomaker, I captured a vivid portrait of the hypocritical mentality of the next generation of Republican leaders. See for yourself.

====== End HuffingtonPost posting =========

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