As I have said for almost two years now, I don’t think “hawk” and “dove” work very well in the Ukraine situation. Consider: Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine, committing mass murder, mass rape, mass deportation, etc. Russia seeks to wipe out Ukraine. The Ukrainians are trying to hold on to their country, their independence, their freedom — their right to exist.
Yet those of us who want to help Ukraine defend itself — believing, among other things, that it is in the U.S. interest to do so — are called “hawks.” Does that make much sense?
(I often think of what Jack Kemp used to say: “I’m a dove — heavily armed.”)
You also hear “warmonger,” constantly. Trumpite populists keep calling Nikki Haley a “warmonger.” At a New Hampshire rally, she felt compelled to say, “I am not a warmonger. You are not the wife of a combat veteran and want war. I don’t want war.”
Brian Riedl had an apt remark. He said that Republicans are frequently referring to free-marketeers as “corporatists” and to anyone who’s not a “blame-America-first isolationist” as a “warmonger.” Riedl’s summation: “Congratulations, Republicans. You’ve become Noam Chomsky.”
Peace is a slippery subject. I once wrote a book on it. This book is distilled, in a sense, in an essay — here, for those interested.
All of my life, I have heard leftists and right-wing populists accuse people like me of being “warmongers.” But if I had my way, there would be no armies at all. No tanks, no missiles. No police departments. No locks on doors. But I don’t get my way. You have to live in the real world — and childish views are dangerous, potentially fatal.
Also, I think people ought to make a distinction between aggression and self-defense.
Finally, “globalist.” This is another populist epithet of choice. In my view, it is at one and the same time childish and sinister. A cousin of “rootless cosmopolitan” and worse. Donald Trump likes to call Nikki Haley a “globalist.” In Iowa earlier this month, he explained, “She likes the globe.”
Who talks that way? “She likes the globe.” That is such a bizarre thing to say. It is especially bizarre from an American leader — a former president and possible future president.
For one thing, America has always been a world-embracing nation. “America is committed to the world,” said Reagan, “because so much of the world is inside America.” He further said, “The blood of each nation courses through the American vein and feeds the spirit that compels us to involve ourselves in the fate of this good earth.”
A Trumpite populism now dominates the American Right — its politicians, its media, its think tanks, and so on. One of the worst things about this populism, in my opinion — certainly one of the most annoying things — is its lexicon.