The 101st Fighting Keyboardists

The "chickenhawk" epithet that has become very popular with far-left anti-war nuts (like those at DailyKos and Democrat Underground) is a dated, lame, illogical, irrational and just plain stupid insult. As a "Fred" in the comments in the link below puts it:

The chickenhawk charge was never intended to be an argument. It was a way for the left to avoid argument by assigning some phiny [phony] qualifying criteria to those who hold a different opinion. It has no other meaning. They stick their fingers in their ears and yell chickenhawk so they can't hear you.

Too true. Too true. And the anti-war crowd doesn't get that, either. You can rub their faces in this logic repeatedly and it just continues to fail to sink in.

So in response, Captain Ed has started up the 101st Fighting Keyboardists:

Our friends on the port side of the blogosphere have had quite a time tossing around funny little nicknames for those of us who support the war on terror and use our blogs to express our convictions about it. We've seen the names here at CQ in the comments section -- the term "chickenhawk" has appeared more than once, and others in the blogosphere have assigned us to a unit called the 101st Fighting Keyboardists.

I've thought about that for a while, wondering what exactly about both epithets appear so fascinating to left-wing bloggers. As a middle-aged grandfather supporting a chronically ill wife, I have few options for doing my part in the war on terror. After 9/11, I spent weeks looking into different options for service while trying to balance my family obligations. Our family found out just three weeks after the attack that the Little Admiral would soon join us, and the implications of terrorism and war weighed heavily on my mind. I resolved to use the skills I had -- writing -- to make the case for fighting a forward strategy against terrorists. Eventually that led me to this blog, but in the interim I argued for a continued muscular offensive against the Islamofascists that had murdered thousands of our fellow Americans.

Is that the same as military service? Of course not. The men and women of the military do the real fighting, and we salute them and support them by supporting their mission. Milbloggers give us the best of both worlds by not only defending our nation and fighting (and beating) terrorists around the globe, but also by reporting on the fight first hand. There is honor in engaging in public debate for policies which we believe are in our nation's best interest as well. For many of us, we know that without presenting our arguments in the national forum, many in the media and the public will quickly overpower the debate and threaten the policies we feel give us the best long-term opportunity to defeat terrorism and the states that fund and shelter them.

Many on the left disagree, however, and often they provide challenging arguments and valuable perspectives on policy and the manner in which it gets implemented. However, many more do little but make ad hominem attacks on those with whom they disagree. They spend a great deal of effort labeling people rather than providing rational arguments on policy, and even the labels they select don't provide much more than amusement.

That's why Frank J of IMAO, Derek Brigham of Freedom Dogs, and I have decided to create -- for real -- the 101st Fighting Keyboardists and adopt the chicken hawk as our mascot. First of all, the term "fighting keyboardist" describes our efforts pretty well, and we think the pseudo-military terminology is pretty danged amusing. Derek himself designed the logo.

And why the chicken hawk? When we looked into it, it turns out that the chicken hawk is a pretty impressive predator. It's the largest of its family. This species vigorously defends its territory, getting even more aggressive when the conditions get harshest. It adapts to all climates. Most impressively, it feeds on chickens, mice, and rats.

Make of that what you will.

Frank, Derek, and I invite you to join the 101st Fighting Keyboardists (motto: We Eat Chickens For Lunch). I'm starting a blogroll and will post the code for other members to display on their blogs. We welcome all of those who feel they qualify for the unit, but especially those who have a sense of humor as well as a sense of purpose. This way, the next time someone refers to you as a chicken hawk for your blogging, you can remind them that as a member of the 101, your talons are your best weapon and that feeding time is near!

Here's the logo:

Captain Ed will be coming out with the code for the Blogroll soon. In the meantime, you can request that your blog be added to the list over on Captain's Quarters.

UPDATE: The KeeBee's Blogroll is up! (And "KeeBee" is, as of yet, unofficial, but some people seem to like it - myself included.)

UPDATE 2: Some people just don't get it.

UPDATE 3: Here's my favorite deconstruction of the left's use of the "chickenhawk" epithet: Can't do it? Don't back it. What's truly amusing about that article is that it's written by an atheist philosopher, Julian Baggini, so it's pretty darn unimpeachable by the left's standards.