Regarding David Sirota's article in Salon.com on why "chickenhawks" are what they are

Why People Become Chickenhawks

A new study sheds light on why non-veterans like Cheney and Limbaugh are such avid militarists

by David Sirota

First of all, "chickenhawk" only applies to some...

Oh yeah, lots of the jingoist "let's you (all you young draftees, future enlistees, and career military people) let's you and them fight and get maimed or die while we intone pretentiously about the glory of war."

Yeah, lots of them are just plain scared of getting hurt or killed. (W for example, who covered his political and family asses by signing up with the air reserve -- when no one without political connections could get into such a reserve unit -- and very specifically training on a jet that he made sure was officially known to NOT GOING TO BE USED in Vietnam. And once safe, of course, just punked out on even finishing his brief safe obligation.)

But for the rest, Cheney and Limbaugh and the rest, my preferred term is "Rec Room / Country Club Patriots" -- conscienceless soulless human-like creatures who consider themselves just too goddamn precious to do the one thing the rest of us had to do, i.e., serve in the military.

Their idea of "serving their country" or "Paying it back for all their success" is to get elected to a power position (Speedo-wearing Steroid grunter Governator Ahhnold), a position of public trust and for some the strutting around honor is good, but for most, including their staffers "paying back" means plundering the treasury to pay back their pals. (In Iraq, it also was about covering up the deals and kickbacks people like Poppy and Redrum and Cheney made and got with Saddam Hussein during the Reagan and BushI administration.)

"Rec Room Patriots" sitting in their lounge chairs, drinking beer or martinis and watching the war they rigged and invented for whatever personal and financial reasons in HD and 3-D on their giant screen tv. "Country Club Patriots" out playing golf (still in possession of both arms and both legs) laughing with their other sociopathic buddies about how exciting (and profitable) war is.

I keep thinking that maybe Sharon Angle (Senatorial candidate from Nevada in 2010) was nuts, but when I think of these guys or the Koch Brothers, et al I think maybe she was on to something we need to think about when she said "going to 2d Amendment Remedies," but just was pointing those guns in the wrong direction.