New Hampshire debate: Newt Gingrich the chicken hawk
I've watched the news most of my life and read more than the "funny pages" in the newspapers we'd get at the house, growing up. I've always wanted to know the why behind everything. I don't know what it is, but I never take much at face value.
I analyze people, places, things, and policies. There is a meaning and impetus behind everything. I want to know, then act accordingly.
Now to the point of this post. I watched an interview that Ron Paul gave to some news outlet last week. During the interview he called Newt Gingrich a chicken hawk, draft dodger, and basically a punk with a big mouth.
It came up again during the GOP New Hampshire Debate last night on ABC, but Paul didn't use as harsh language this time. So where did this come from?
Paul accused Gingrich of getting deferments for the Vietnam War, which Paul participated in even though he was a husband and father of two young children at the time. Gingrich said he never received any deferments and that he was not eligible for the draft. So who is telling the truth?
According to the following sites, Gingrich did receive deferments for the Vietnam conflict.
- Gingrich's profile on NNDB
- "Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich received a student deferment."
- Webguild where the site claims Gingrich sought deferment for graduate school.
Why does any of this matter? Well, like Ron Paul, I don't see how anyone who is afraid to go toe to toe in combat can be so quick to send someone else, someone else's child, someone else's son or daughter, etc. Well, actually I can see how. Going back to my political psychology courses. People like Newt Gingrich live their manhood vicariously through the manhood of others. So it is easy for them to send other men and women into war because it puffs up their testosterone.
There was this theory I remember from college about men and missiles and how some political dingbats tie their own manhood to the size of missiles. (I'm not making this up.) Because Newt Gingrich feels inadequate in his own prowess he forces the prowess of others to show as an extension of his own.
He suffers no hardship, but wants to take all the glory for it. This showed, even on last night. When Paul accused him of being a chicken hawk, Gingrich started talking about how his daddy, not him...but his daddy, was in the Mekong Delta fighting for this country. But what about you, Newt? Why weren't you out there fighting alongside your daddy and the countless numbers of soldiers who lost their lives, or the ones who came home to even more suffering, ridicule, homelessness, drug addiction, psychosis...
He claimed he was ineligible and was a husband and a father at the time. Well Paul pulled his card and said, wait a minute....when I went in...I was married and had TWO children! But I still went! *POW*
When it comes to military action, I guess I'm a "Dove". Basically, I do not believe in war. I believe most, if not all, conflicts can be resolved without loss of life. I understand the necessity of the military, but I don't believe in fighting all the time or fighting for most of the things we have fought for. That being said, like Ron Paul, I don't understand how someone who will run from conflict has no problem forcefully pushing others into it.
Newt Gingrich seems like a coward to me! Some would call him a P.A.B....but I don't cuss, so I'm not going to call him that... But yes, it seems that Mr. Gingrich is a CHICKEN HAWK in the worst way!
