Sending Kids to War

"There is a sarcastic discriptive term that is particularly apt in today's political climate- "chicken hawk". The term describes an individual who avoids military service during times of conflict, then, wrapped in the flag, sends other peoples' children to be killed in war without giving them adequate equipment to defend themselves. The list of people in the current Congress and Bush administration who fit that term would fill a page.

By contrast, Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Ford, Carter and Bush the elder all served honorably. FDR's sons served in WWII, one being killed in action. These men were patriots before becoming president and knew the horror of war. Representative John Doolittle ducked military service in Vietnam. In Congress he has wrapped himself in the flag, voted for the bloody, useless war in Iraq and then voted for budgets that provided inadequate equipment for the troops.

Doolittle is a chicken hawk. Doolittle's opponent, Charlie Brown, graduated from the Air Force Academy, served in Vietnam and was shot down. Brown has seen the blood of war. He knows the difference between self-defense and arrogant imperialism."

Darrel Walker
Lincoln, California