MILITARY – THE DEFERMENT OF THE HAWKS: In the September 2004 Vanity Fair, which hit newsstand shelves yesterday, respected journalist David Halberstam examines the discrepancy between the administration's hawks and their personal military records. "To the new superhawks, an America engaged in a worthy war of self-defense and a new imperial America engaged in a war that is a significant miscalculation of policy are the same thing." Halberstam adds, "Their new poster boy is the vice president himself, a man of great certitude, not just about Vietnam but about Iraq as well – his confidence and certitude hardly born of a life experience." Instead of going to war, "Richard Cheney received five – yes, five – deferments, a record that would make most men modest about speaking out on Vietnam and related subjects." And he's not even the Bush administration's deferment king: That (dis)honor goes to "that singular American patriot, Attorney General John Ashcroft, who got seven. Yes, seven."