[Tolik]

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

       Let me know if you want in or out.

Links: FR Index of his articles:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson 
His website: http://victorhanson.com/     NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp

[trisham]

Good article.

[RobFromGa]

bttt for a good article, thanks for posting it...

[MNJohnnie]

Except he misses the most obvious. The out right treason of the American Junk Media and it Democrat Party masters.

There was political consensus, grudgingly given perhaps, but consensus about taking out Iraq in 2003. NOW the Democrat Establishment is the active allies of the Rouge nations. With the willing collaborators certain RINO Republican Senators, the Democrat Leadership has made it pretty obvious they will back NOTHING Bush trys to do EVEN if the opposition jeopardizes US National Security.

That lack of political consensus severely limits what a President can, and cannot do. I know this doesn't register with most Americans since their understanding of Politics comes from watching have a Hollywood blockbusters and TV shows but a President is not god. A President cannot just do what ever he wants when he wants because he wants to.

So President Bush is reduced to "Consensus" Diplomatic efforts due to the treason of the Democrat party and the gutlessness of certain Republican Senators.

[maica]

Good summary:

What progress we have made since 9/11 — thousands of terrorists killed, al Qaeda scattered, Europe galvanized about Islamism and sobered about the consequences of its cheap U.S. rhetoric, Iran’s nuclear antics revealed, democracy birthed in the Middle East, Palestinian radicals exposed for their fraud, the United Nations under overdue scrutiny, America much better defended at home — all that came as a result of an often unilateralist posture that risked global alienation by challenging the easy appeasement of the rest of the world. Nothing there to apologize for or change — but much accomplished to be proud of.


******

Reporter on F&F this morning says that sentiment in Lebanon is with the Israelis, realizing that clearing out the Hezbollah from southern Lebanon has to be done.

[Suzy Quzy]

If the Democrats would have supported Bush in Iraq, this war would have been over, and Iraq would have bben pacified. Instead the Democrats have offered support to the terrorists/insurgents!!!

[Mr. Jeeves]

Moreover, the daily griping, victimization, scapegoating, and violence of the Islamic Arab world, whether directed against us in Iraq, or the Indians, Europeans, and Russians, for many has had the aggregate effect of tiring people, perhaps best characterized as a feeling like: “Forget them — they are hopeless and not worth another American soldier, dollar, or thought.”

This exact sentiment is responsible for probably 80% of the anti-Iraq polls we see.

[newcthem]

Thanks for posting.........Great Article.

[Amelia]

In addition, the consuming nations are now providing a windfall of several hundred billion in extra profits to the likes of the House of Saud, the Iranian theocrats, the Gulf Sheikdoms, Hugo Chavez, and Vladimir Putin. Not only are some of these billions recycled in nefarious ways in arms purchases and terrorist subsidies, but also the intrinsic failures of theocracy, autocracy, and neo-Communism are masked by such accidental largess.

I think we have to realize our own domestic failures in not implementing more policies to reduce our dependence on foreign petroleum.

IMO, Congress and the President could have and should have shown more leadership in this matter.

Actually it seems that conservatives and radical environmentalists might be able to make common cause on this matter, albeit for different reasons.

Regardless, the country ought to be able to come together and find ways of significantly reducing our dependence on foreign oil, quickly and radically. If we have the will, we can find a way.