To the surprise of everyone, including both active duty and retired military voters, Senator Clinton has emerged from the campaign trail as the only candidate among the Democrats who could reasonably be labeled as a "hawk."  The picture started to emerge, of course, a few years ago when she voted for the invasion of Iraq.  Her hawkish tendencies further coalesced with her vote for tagging the Iranian Republican Guard as a terrorist entity.

But it's the debates that have fully revealed Hillary's willingness to push the button or give the "go" order, if required.  While Edwards demonstrates his ignorance of "combat" and Obama lamely attempts a stud factor (evinced by the statements a few months back about invading Pakistan), Hillary's message has been consistent — often evasive, but always consistent.  Basically, war follows pretty closely behind attempted diplomacy for her.

Now this reality is anathema to the old guard.  They can't forget the early '90s Hillary.  And of course, Hillary got her reputation the old fashioned way:  She earned it.  Her disdain for the military as she swaggered around her new White House digs with James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, et. al. referring to the uniformed staff as "those people" is the stuff of E-Ring legend.

Additonally, she's inextricably linked to Bill, he of his own Ivy League proclivities and "don't ask, don't tell" authorship.  (Of course that legislation angered both sides - the military and the gay and lesbian community - but the military saw it as a direct attack against order and discipline by a guy who was just trying to settle a political score.)

But is Hillary the Hawk really so surprising?  Say what you will about her, at the end of the day, the senator hates nothing as much as losing.  (That's why she's still with Bill.)  That same instinct informs her approach to foreign policy.  If the intel (good or bad) indicates even most distant threat to America, she's going to pull the trigger . . . every time.

As her husband's understanding (and appreciation) of the military matured during the Balkans situation in the '90s, so has Hillary's.  She's no longer the naive idealogue of her early First Lady era.  She's visited Iraq and seen our troops in action (or at least sat through Powerpoint lectures in the Green Zone that showed our troops in action).  And besides, any good senator knows the value of the defense dollar.  (She was a quick study there.  Pork, anyone?)

It may have taken a decade or so for her to come around, but it looks like she gets it now.

No, I'm not voting for her.  (At least I don't plan on it at this writing; I'm a Republican-Libertarian like everyone else these days.)  I'm just mavelling at the phenomenon.  And I know this:  I'd think twice about getting on her bad side.  (Ask the former president about that.  "You will hug me on the stage and like it!")  Her enemies - foreign and domestic - are going to be hating life if she gets elected.  Of course, the rest of us may be hating life, too, but that's another story.