We could be on the brink of World War III. Israel assassinated a Hezbollah leader, Iran bombed Israel, Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon, and the United States deployed more troops and fighter jets to the Middle East. Israel won’t back down on Lebanon or Gaza, and both Israel and Iran have nuclear weapons.
It’s scary — and a bipartisan chorus of nerds who probably couldn’t win a bar fight is eager to make it even scarier.
“Chicken hawks” is the term of art for those who support wars and engage in bellicose rhetoric but have never put themselves on the front lines. Usually men, they may be overcompensating for battlefield heroics they’ve never attempted. Or they may just be bloodthirsty cowards.
It’s been quite a week for such figures. The United States has a clear path to peace, and perhaps even to Kamala Harris’s election, by stopping Israel’s war in Gaza. It’s obvious that Joe Biden isn’t doing enough to make that happen: while he sometimes whines about what Israel is doing, he keeps the supply of money and weapons flowing its way. If he were to cut off all military support to Israel, this metastasizing war would end. But the hardcore Iran chicken hawks don’t see the situation that way. To them, Biden is already doing too much to pursue peace. They have penned op-eds, written press releases, gone on national television, and tweeted, some of the safest known strategies for confronting our nation’s supposed enemies.
Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro — who thankfully was not chosen as Kamala Harris’s running mate, though he was seriously considered — once falsely claimed that he volunteered for the Israeli army, a boast that he had to walk back this summer after the Philadelphia Inquirer exposed it as a lie. Such embarrassing incidents haven’t humbled him, however, and he continues to weigh on the Middle East. This week, Shapiro, a rising star in the Democratic Party, went on…
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Auteur: Liza Featherstone
