Generation Chickenhawk from The Nation
At a table by the buffet was Justin Palmer, vice chairman of the Georgia Association of College Republicans, America's largest chapter of College Republicans. In 1984 the group gained prominence in conservative circles when its chairman, Ralph Reed, formed a political action committee credited with helping to re-elect Senator Jesse Helms. Palmer's future as a right-wing operative looked bright; he batted away my question about his decision to avoid fighting the war he supported with the closest thing I heard to a talking point all afternoon. "The country is like a body," Palmer explained, "and each part of the body has a different function. Certain people do certain things better than others." He said his "function" was planning a "Support Our Troops" day on campus this year in which students honored military recruiters from all four branches of the service.
This just tips me over the edge - I have been doing well not melting down about the war. However, the attitude of the college students in this article and their embodiment of the Republican disregard for anyone they think is beneath themselves is just beyond belief. Oh yes - I get the message here very well - Mr. Palmer thinks of himself as the "brain" of the country - and we don't want to get out brains shot out do we? No - let's send the hands and the feet to be destroyed. The idea that because of your class or your supposed "intelligence" you are better than another is so hateful. This young man thinks that he is better; more deserving of life and happiness and the chance to grow old at peace than all these people:
Erik Anders Halvorsen
Kyle C. Gilbert
Alan N. Bean Jr.
Mark Asher Evnin
William J. Normandy
Jeffery Scott Holmes
Jesse W. Strong
Solomon C. "Kelly" Bangayan
Kevin F. Sheehan
Jamie A. Gray
Pierre E. Piche
Who are they? The 11 Vermonter's killed in Iraq so far.
Just a bit about Kyle Gilbert:
When high school senior Kyle Gilbert couldn't get into the military because of occasional headaches, he turned to Vermont's Sen. James Jeffords.
"I was used to people asking me to help them get out of the military, not the other way around," Jeffords said.
Pvt. Gilbert, 20, was killed Aug. 6, 2003, when their unit was fired on from a passing vehicle in Baghdad.
If you are going to say you support this war then you have better stop hiding behind false rationalization about why you personally can't go and fight. You better stop deluding yourself that you are some how more important than other human beings. Just because you have money does not make you more important, more intelligent or more worthwhile than anyone else - and that is what this is all about - money and class and the idea that certain people are born into certain echelons which determine their "function" in the country. If you are willing to let someone else go and fight and die for YOUR cause as if they were your servants and that is their place - their function - their "fate", then I wonder how you view democracy?
The dehumanization of others is a clear sign of the lack of humanity of the dehumanizer.
EDIT-- and we're not even talking about the thousands of innocents killed in Iraq - the babies , the children, the ordinary grocery clerk, teacher, nurse, mother or father.
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