Foaming at the mouth site Ankle Biting Pundits is outraged over the open seat in Ohio's 2nd District. The election is getting a fair amount of attention because a Marine recently back from Iraq, Paul Hackett, is running on the Democratic ticket in what I understand is a generally Republican district.
Anyway...the fourteen year old tough guys over at Ankle Biting Pundits are outraged that Hackett has the nerve to call President Bush a chickenhawk for ducking service in Vietnam. While I prefer the more straightforward "coward," chickenhawk sounds about right. One of the genius Ankle Biter supporters chimes in with his support:
It is funny how the Bush haters like to say the Bush did not put his life on the line when he volunteered for the Texas Air National Guard and therefore is a chicken hawk. The fact is that at the time he served, he flew the most dangerous plane flown by the Air National Guard and the Air force. The Delta Dart had a much higher accident rate then the F-4 that was the top of the line fighter at the time. Also at the time he volunteered his unit had pilots serving in Vietnam and if he would have had enough flight hours he would have gone to Vietnam unlike the left’s hero Bill Clinton who really was a Chicken Hawk. Clinton served no time in the military and sent men in harms way whenever he needed to wag the dog. The hole argument is bogus anyway as some of our greatest wartime presidents where Chicken Hawks. FDR, Truman, and Lincoln never served.
My response to this is reproduced below:
A few things:
1) So Bush flew "the most dangerous plane flown by the Air National Guard"? Wow. What a brave Bush is. Was it more dangerous than, say, actually going to Vietnam? I've heard some lame excuses defending Bush, but this has to be one of the worst. Truly Pravda like in it's transparent, weak attempt to burnish the great leader's bravery credentials.
2) Repeat this to yourself: Clinton didn't support the Vietnam war. Bush did. This difference is what makes Bush the coward that he is. He was prepared to send others to die for his cause, while he worked on a campaing in Alabama.
3) The lament that Bush didn't log enough hours is pathetic. If he had bothered to show up, or not campaign in Alabama, or not failed to show up for his physical, he could have logged the requisite number of hours. Oh what could have been!
4) Yes, FDR never served. He was also a cripple. What do expect from the guy? And Lincoln was a veteren of the Black Hawk War. If I thought you were smart enought to know what that is, I would explain it.
5) It's spelled "whole", not "hole," you fucking moron.
Posted by mike at July 27, 2005 05:10 PMMike,
You seemed to have stumbled into actually adressing the substance of a post. Congrats. What's next? Limiting your number of personal insults (foaming at the mouth (sic), 14 year old (sic) tough guys, coward, chickenhawk, Pravda like (sic), "if I thought you were smart enough", and fucking moron.)? Nah, not likely.
Substantively, I wonder if it can be determined that the casualty rate (or death rate) from Vietnam is higher than that of flying planes.
I think I disagree with you on that point. Cowards don't become fighter pilots. A coward could volunteer and get a desk job, no?
Non-substantively: "Foaming-at-the-mouth" should have hyphens (Fowler's, rule two) as should "year-old" (Fowler's, rule three) and probably "Pravda-like" (Fowler's mentions prefixes to proper words, but not suffixes). The Black Hawk War is over. That means it "was" not "is". It's spelled campaign, not campaing. Refer to your fifth point.
Flying a plane is a poor benchmark of bravery. You shouldn't measure a man's character simply by glancing at his occupational history. Unduely glorifying Bush's service record is just as repugnant as distorting it in a negative light. If nothing else, we can safely assume the casualty rate of flying planes over Texas in the late 1960s was less than that of flying planes over Vietnam during the same period.
Bush served his country honorably, in such a way so as to protect his personal interests (his life). One may speculate that the F-4s were needed for combat operations so that gaurdsmen protecting the homeland were stuck with the uber-dangerous Delta Darts. Just a thought.
Another poster to that forum pointed out how the term "chickenhawk" does not accurately describe FDR, Truman, or Lincoln. The term also shouldn't be used to describe Bush or Clinton, though it's interesting each side's supporters use the other guy to defend their own guy's actions.
I enjoyed the hyphenation refresher course. One should point out, though, that it's acceptable to refer to concepts relating to historical events in the present tense. EG when you wondered what the casualty rate from Vietnam is, you could also have wondered what the casualty rate was without confounding the point or violating the tenets of the English language. So, yeah, while Mike should have used the past tense to refer to the war, on the hole (sic), this is a fairly innocuous mistake.
You could have jumped on him for "What a brave Bush is (sic)" or "veteren (sic)" or "smart enought (sic)" too. Cause writing "sic" in parenthesis is totally sweet.
Posted by: Cam on July 28, 2005 03:31 PMFDR did not contract polio until the 1920s.
Posted by: MnZ on September 15, 2005 10:03 AMFDR did not contract polio until the 1920s. Sorry...it looks like the facts might get in your way.
Posted by: MnZ on September 15, 2005 10:05 AM