The chickenhawk argument isn’t perfect, but it gets across a very important truth. If this war really *were* the existential threat the President and Jules like to say it is, no one would hesitate to take much sterner measures than we’ve taken. The reason war supporters don’t volunteer is that they know, deep down, that this isn’t that kind of war — another World War II or a conflict with the pre-1989 USSR. Their failure to enlist doesn’t make me doubt war supporters’ courage – far from it. I think it’s evidence of their sanity.
That said, I wish they’d recalibrate their rhetoric and talk sense about the real nature of the threat. But we can’t have everything.
Which leads me finally to Tiny. Tiny, I wish the President would deliver the speech Jules suggests. His approval ratings would go from 30% down to 20%, and we might really force some change.
