Liberal Hawks

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form. Liberal Hawks "From Adbusters #59... still relevant as we go into 2021. All back issues of Adbusters are available for purchase online on the Culture Shop." You’ve heard the terms. Liberal hawk. War dove. Academic circles may prefer ‘liberal interventionist.’ The term applies to left-wingers who are committed to using military force to preserve and promote human rights. Their support for the invasion of Iraq confused some people. Aren’t lefties supposed to oppose the war? Many in the liberal hawk camp downplayed the relevance of the more dubious motives for attacking Iraq – supposed weapons of mass destruction and links to al Qaeda – in favor of a bigger point: removing Saddam Hussein from power would free millions of people from the torture and abuse of a brutal dictator. So it was a good thing. Well, not necessarily ‘good,’ but the lesser of two evils. That’s how liberal hawk posterboy Michael Ignatieff framed it. In