A really good examination of the Chickenhawk mentality

At Unclaimed Territory Glenn Greenwald looks at those who criticise the people who actually put themselves in harm's way.

Yesterday, David Warren, a columnist for Real Clear Politics and The Ottawa Citizen, attacked Centanni and Wiig for being cowards and "men without chests" and said that they illustrate so much of what is wrong with the West and why we are losing to the Islamofascists:

The case of the two Fox News journalists, held hostage in Gaza, is worth dwelling upon. . . .

The degree to which our starch is awash is exhibited in the behaviour of so many of our captives, but especially in these two. They were told to convert to Islam under implicit threat (blindfolded and hand-tied, they could not judge what threat), and agreed to make the propaganda broadcasts to guarantee their own safety. That much we can understand, as conventional cowardice. (Understand; not forgive.) But it is obvious from their later statements that they never thought twice; that they could see nothing wrong in serving the enemy, so long as it meant they'd be safe. . .

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Warren has a biography page on his website. In telling us about himself, Warren complains that "the thumb on (his) right hand still hurts sometimes from when it was broken in a dodgeball game," tells us that his favorite sport is cricket, talks of his love for Ella Fitzgerald and Jane Austen, touts his devout Catholicism, confesses that he has "been estranged [from his wife of 18 years] for going on four years," and says he is "fascinated by seeds, small shells, tiny fishes, & insects."

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Perhaps most revealingly, this Crusader for Masculine Chestfulness confesses that he "could barely even pass phys. ed.," but assures us that he was "Not weak, especially; just more-or-less incapable of following orders." But don't worry, he assures us: "I am heterosexual." And while Warren denounces as "cowards" journalists like Centanni and Wiig who travel to Gaza and other war zones (Centanni was the first journalist on the scene where Saddam Hussein's two sons were killed), he gently, and with grand understatement, pronounces himself "an idle person."

You know how it is. He'd show us how to fight, but he has other concerns.

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