Jeff Jacoby: are you a 'Chicken Hawk'?

Straight out of Beantown, Jeff Jacoby weighs on on the Moonbats' favorite meme for villifying the likes of Dick Cheney and Karl Rove; he asks, "Are you a ‘chicken hawk?’" (hat tip: LGF):

“Chicken hawk“ isn’t an argument. It is a slur — a dishonest and incoherent slur... US foreign policy would be more hawkish, not less, if decisions about war and peace were left up to [only] members of the armed forces. Soldiers tend to be politically conservative, hard-nosed about national security, and confident that American arms make the world safer and freer... The cry of “chicken hawk” is dishonest for another reason: It is never aimed at those who oppose military action. But there is no difference, in terms of the background and judgment required, between deciding to go to war and deciding not to. If only those who served in uniform during wartime have the moral standing and experience to back a war, then only they have the moral standing and experience to oppose a war. Those who mock the views of “chicken hawks“ ought to be just as dismissive of “chicken doves.” ...You don’t need medical training to express an opinion on healthcare. You don’t have to be on the police force to comment on matters of law and order. You don’t have to be a parent or a teacher or a graduate to be heard on the educational controversies of the day. You don’t have to be a journalist to comment on this or any other column. And whether you have fought for your country or never had that honor, you have every right to weigh in on questions of war and peace. Those who cackle “Chicken hawk!” are not making an argument. They are merely trying to stifle one, and deserve to be ignored.