Chickenhawk (politics)
Template:Short description Chickenhawk (chicken hawk or chicken-hawk) is a political term used in the United States to describe a person who is a war hawk yet actively avoids or avoided military service when of age.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In political usage, chickenhawk is a compound of chicken (meaning 'coward') and hawk from war hawk (meaning 'someone who advocates war'). Generally, the implication is that chickenhawks lack bravery to participate in war themselves, preferring to ask others to support, fight, and die in an armed conflict.
History
The term war hawk developed early in American history as a term for one who advocates war. On one episode of the American television show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In that aired in 1970, Dan Rowan made the following joke:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Better source needed
Previously, the term war wimp was sometimes used, coined during the Vietnam War by Congressman Andrew Jacobs, a Marine veteran of the Korean War,<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> to describe "someone who promotes waging war or building up the tools of war but hid behind a college deferment or suddenly came up lame when the draft board whistled."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The 1983 bestselling book Chickenhawk was a memoir by Robert Mason about his service in the Vietnam War, in which he was a helicopter pilot. Mason used the word as a compound oxymoron to describe both his fear of combat ("chicken") and his attraction to it ("hawk").<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Commentary
James Fallows identifies the rise of chickenhawks with the distancing of the American public from the military. He says that while most Americans had experience with the military by the end of World War II, having either served or known people who had, "now the American military is exotic territory to most of the American public." He cites examples of popular media such as Apocalypse Now and The Hurt Locker as many Americans' exposure to the military.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Critics of the term chickenhawk argue that the term is used as a form of whataboutism in place of arguments against military action. Matthew Yglesias describes it as "a species of hypocrisy charge, a tempting rhetorical ploy that in practice proves almost nothing."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Commentator and author Jonah Goldberg considers "chickenhawk" a fallacy and asserts that "arguments must stand on their own merits, regardless of who delivers them" while conservative zionist commentator Ben Shapiro has criticized the pejorative claiming "for liberals to mock supporters of the war who haven't served in the military "undermines fundamental values of representative democracy."<ref name="Kinney" />
Paul Wolfowitz,<ref>Template:Cite news </ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>John Bolton,<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref><ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref><ref name="Lemon">Template:Cite news</ref> Donald Trump,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Lemon" /> Dick Cheney,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Sirota">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Kinney" /> George W Bush,<ref name="Kinney">Template:Cite web</ref> Newt Gingrich,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rush Limbaugh,<ref name="Sirota" /> Mitt Romney,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Ted Nugent<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=auto2>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=MM>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=DFP>Template:Cite web</ref> are modern examples of those being called chickenhawks by critics.
Research
Template:Expand section According to a 2014 study, leaders who had military backgrounds but no combat experience were most likely to initiate conflicts and wars.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>