Generation Chickenhawk: the Unauthorized College Republican Convention Tour
Where the Heck is the Recruiting Drive?
In conversations with at least twenty College Republicans about the war in Iraq, I listened as they lip-synched discredited cant about “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.” Many of the young GOP cadres I met described the so-called “war on terror” as nothing less than the cause of their time. Yet when I asked these College Republicans why they were not participating in this historic cause, they immediately went into contortions. Asthma. Bad knees from playing catcher in high school. “Medical reasons.” “It’s not for me.” These were some of the excuses College Republicans offered for why they could not fight them “over there.”…. Like the current Republican leaders who skipped out on Vietnam, the GOP’s next generation would rather cheerlead from the sidelines for the war in Iraq while other, less privileged young men and women fight and die.
There are few things more dangerous than rampant stupidity. Few groups embody the spirit of rampant stupidity more than College Republicans. These children of wealth and privilege, most of whom honestly believe that they were to the manor born, are quite happy to support the never-ending war against terror- just as long as they’re not the ones doing the fighting and dying. To call these maroons hypocrites wouldn’t begin to do justice to the depths of their perfidy and self-absorption. Then again, they do serve one useful purpose: the give Operation Yellow Elephant it’s raison d’etre.
The amusing thing about these troglodytes is that they really cannot seem to recognize what a joke they’ve become and what a high level of hypocrisy they represent. They are completely, 100% behind the war in Iraq…because to them it’s an abstract concept. They don’t see the coffins, they aren’t morning the loss of a loved one, and they never have to worry about snipers or IEDs. Why SHOULDN’T they support the war under those circumstances? As long as someone else is doing the fighting and dying, it’s all good.
And these are the people who see it as their birthright to lead this nation into the future. We can only hope that we can find it within ourselves to deny them the opportunity.
