Boy am I outraged! I not only got insulted, but my attacker used a term which went out of style last year! The sheer nerve! L'audace! Not only that, but getting into foreign policy debates with Oxford Arabist scholars really sucks because they have all the facts and figures right there in front of them and I gotta go look it all up if I wanna say anything halfway persuasive!

Sheesh!

I am so upset by this trauma that I thought I would post the email and my reply for all the world to see.

Question from Oxford Man:

Dear Chicken-hawks in this email group,
What do you think of the the US begging the UN
Security Council to pass a new resolution in the hope
of forming a real multi-national coalition to deal with
the disaster created by the US-Iraq War?
Are you still eating your 'Freedom Fries'?

Xxxx I guess this is your way of baiting someone -- and because no one has taken the bait I feel reluctantly obliged to defend my fellow yellow raptors.

If it is your serious contention that only those with combat experience have the right to approve of the war in Iraq, then I understand the resort to ad hominem attacks, because logic has failed you utterly. (However, if it would make you happy, in the interests of peace and good harmonious relations, I'd be willing to yield the floor to a combat veteran -- my choice, of course....)

But what really, really hurts is that as an insult the term "Chicken hawk" is last year's fashion! I thought Christopher Hitchens did a pretty good job of putting this "fowl" insult to bed last year... but here's his piece once again....

=========================

fighting words
"Armchair General"
The ugly idea that non-soldiers have less right to argue for war.
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, November 11, 2002, at 2:04 PM PT

[You can read the entire Hitchens article here.]

Finally, Xxxx, your questions -- about begging the UN, a disaster, and "Freedom Fries" -- contain so many assumptions as to be argumentative in nature. Not only did you put words in my mouth, you then stuffed in unwholesome, fatty food -- and mislabeled it at that! I'm not biting.

Eric

Enough for tonight. I am sick of this cruel, cruel world!