The ChickenHawk Syndrome by Cheyney Ryan

Front Flap: In recent year, the question of war and sacrifice has been a major topic of political debate and controversy. If our country goes to war for reasons we endorse, what is our responsibility to share in its sacrifice? Does supporting a war mean serving in it? Does it mean encouraging our children to do so? Such questions have been posed by the so-called chickenhawk phenomenon: pro-war leaders and their pro-war children who call on Americans to assume the burdens of war and its sacrifices, but avoid these sacrifices themselves. George W. Bush and other architects of the Iraq conflict have been the most prominent chickenhawks. Cheyney Ryan argues that the chickenhawk issue is not just a matter of personalities- it will remain with us long after the Bush administration has left office. Ryan poses fundamental questions of war and personal sacrifice, pointing to the basic disconnect in American politics between the support for war and the willingness to assume its costs, which he calls "alienated war" Calling for the reinvigoration of civic involvement, this illuminating and insightful book offers both a philosophical and historical exploration of America's citizen-soldier tradition and the consequences involved in separating the citizenry form the armed forces. This was for philosophy and it was the best and most interesting book I read for this class. It was pretty amazing to hear about all these things onwar and about like this generation and compared to other generations in the past and other wars. I learned a lot about the war and other concepts. It was really repetitive at first, but thats ok. It made sense and was in language I could understand but now I gotta write a 5 page sectional paper on it boo! haha