Playing Chicken

Opinion Journal
"A new Associated Press-Ipsos
poll has results that seem obvious: "People who have friends or relatives serving in Iraq are more likely than others to have a positive view" of the war effort there:

A solid majority of those who did not know anyone in Iraq said they thought the war was a mistake, 61 percent, compared to 36 percent who thought it was the right decision. Those who had a relative or friend there were almost evenly split, 49 percent right decision, 47 percent mistake.

We analyzed Friday the meaning of the relatively high numbers overall who at the moment say the war was a "mistake," but the finding that those closer to the war are more likely to support it underscores one of the more audacious inversions of the "antiwar" movement--namely the complaint that supporters of the war are not actually fighting it themselves or "sending" their "children" to fight it. These are the same people, of course, who think we should take seriously the advice of such military geniuses as Maureen Dowd, Bob Herbert, former Enron adviser Paul Krugman and Frank Rich.

Of course all citizens have a right to participate in public debates on matters of war and peace, and civilian control of the military is a core democratic principle. That the left is resorting to "chickenhawk" nonsense is a sign of how empty its argument is.