Victor Davis Hanson: American Cannibalism, We are doing to ourselves what the enemy could not

NRO ^ | May 14, 2004 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Tolik]

Victor Davis Hanson moral clarity huge BUMP  

[please freepmail me if you want or don't want to be pinged to Victor Davis Hanson articles]

If you want to bookmark his articles discussed at FR: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/k-victordavishanson/browse

His NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp

His blog: http://victorhanson.com/index.html     BIO: http://victorhanson.com/Author/index.html

Yes, he is listened by the Bush Administration; they like him maybe as much as we do: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1085464/posts?page=6#6

[alpha-8-25-02]

AMEN!

[MEG33]

May God save us from the enemy within.

[ModelBreaker]

If it were not so tragic it would be ironic to see what the present prescient critics are going to say — much less do — when they confront the hideous reality that Iran and perhaps Syria will have acquired nuclear weapons and with them the ability, without a neighboring nuclear India staring them down, to blackmail most of the Middle East and the oil-hungry world at large.

That's a complete no-brainer. They will blame America. Specifically, they will blame the previous administration. Then they will apologize for whatever.

[Puddleglum]

Very nice article. It's nice to ready a litany of fact and cogent arguments when the media is every day trying to mind wipe the history of what has actually happened from the collective consciousness. I am not ready to concede that Joe Lieberman is "decent and honorable" until he parts company with the Dems who are filibustering President Bush's judicial appointments, however.

[Tolik]

We are two nations in one. I don't understand how they don't see things that are immediately obvious to the most on this forum. They wonder about bushbots with the dumb idiot as the ring leader.

9/11 briefly bridged the gap. But now its wide open again. I afraid that it will remain the same until bigger tragedies will clear Leftists' minds (or kill us all).

[B.O. Plenty]

We are two nations in one....It's Time to Part Company

Just thought this would be interesting...again.

[MEG33]

Great article..

[headsonpikes]

RE; Kennedy, et al.

Faction is the enemy of republics. See Roman history for sick-making parallels.

[MEG33]

FYI

[MEG33]

Perspective.

[Tolik]

Thanks. Walter Williams is another my favorite.

Besides opting out with one-two states, there are interesting proposals somewhere out there in the blogosphere. Internet changed the way people communicate. I can have nothing in common with my immediate neighbors, but feel close to others miles away. Quasi communities existing now on the Internet can overgrow into quasi nations uniting people who do want to be united. There are of course some "minor" issues like physical security, roads, defense, but otherwise, the level of the government involvement in the personal life would be up to you.

If you like science fiction, there is a brilliant book by Neil Stephenson The Diamond Age : Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer It's a classic on the nano-tech future SF, but the vision of cultural divides with emerging quasi nations is amazing.

[philosofy123]

What a guy! I agree with this writing 100% with a minor exceptions and explanations.

First, the reason this massive revival of militant Islam took place is well known to our government, and they failed to do anything about it. 1) The Iranian revolution put the entire national income of Iran at the disposal of its fanatical clerics to propagate militant Islamic ideologies around the world. 2) The Saudis sudden riches after the embargo allowed additional billions of dollars to push hateful Islam (Wahhabism) around the world. 3) Our CIA training of militant Islamic thugs to fight in Afghanistan Bosnia, and Kosovo in coordination with our archenemies Iran, and Saudi Arabia. 4) The open border, allowed many legal and illegal Moslems to live among us despite the fact that we know that they will never assimilate, and accept living under our laws. 5) The idiots on the liberal side emboldened them in demanding acceptance of their fanatic way of life under the guise of DIVERSITY! 6) Millions of Saudi dollars are spent in this country to build Mosques, while we cannot build one church in their country, who is the bitch in this relationship? 7) A systematic proselyte of prisoners in America under our nose without any counter action. A new inmate walks in, and he is typically worried about getting gang raped in prison. Don’t worry said the big Moslem dude, you convert to Islam, and we literarily save your ass.

Now given the above stupidity of the American government, and its inability counter that global radical Islam despite of all their many crimes in WTC in 1993, Kobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, US Cole in Yemen, American embassies in Africa, Taliban atrocities, Sudan atrocities, Indonesian atrocities, Pakistan atrocities, Philippine atrocities, Egypt atrocities, Palestinian suicide bombers atrocities, Chechnya atrocities, Albania atrocities, Kashmir atrocities…..WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR THE BRAIN WASHED IDIOTS IN WASHINGTON TO CONNECT THE DOTS AND REALIZE THE DANGER OF RADICAL ISLAM!

In 9/11, all the stupid Joe-Six-Pack of America waked up. In addition, all the godless Europeans waked up, and realized that burying your head in the sand allows your ass to be exposed to your enemies! Every one was outraged, every one was united to take on these scum bags. We got our friends together and went after the base of Al Qaida, Afghanistan, the center of radical fanatical regime. We kicked their ass in no time. Now, we are ready to continue the war against fanatical Islam. We did not go after Iran, the instigator of hate; we did not go after Sudan, the base of a militant Moslem government that slaughtered 2 million Christians. We did not go after Saudi Arabia, the contributor of most money to create venomous hate against us, and the contributor of the jihadists in 9/11. No, we went after a secular dictator, who doesn’t give a sh*t about Islam, he is only concerned with staying in power. That did not go well with our allies who were ready to continue the fight against RADICAL MILITANT ISLAM. Somehow, we got confused, and somehow we refused to accept advice, and accordingly, we lost the solid backing and enthusiasm of our European brothers and sisters in continuing the fight against radical Islam.

Now, I am sure, I am going to get all kind of smart ass comments about the reasons for the war on Iraq. Saved guys, just admit that we were stupid to waste all that time and monies on a country that was not a “MAJOR” player in the fanatical Islamic movement. Now the latest thing is to mess with Syria, another “SECULAR” dictatorship. When are we going to learn who are our enemies, and when are going to close our gates to further importation of Moslems. One more point, if you want to discuss my long dissertation, please do at length, and with evidences. If you want to just make wise-ass remarks, please save it. This is a serious discussion for serious minded people only. Thanks.

[vanmorrison]

I agree with your historical synopsis of how we got into our current predicament. But I don't agree with your conclusion. Have you forgotten that we were already spending billions on "containment" of Hussein for over ten years? The UN-sponsored "No Fly Zones" were being maintained at our expense. All the while, the French and Germans were screwing us with their "Oil for Food" fraud. And there is no doubt that the Iraqis were actively pursuing a nuclear bomb. So are Iran and North Korea.

Consider what's happening now in Iraq. All of the shitkickers doing the killing are Moslem fanatics, egged on by Moslem Imams. The claim that Iraq was "secular", meaning irreligious, and therefore not a threat is just not credible. Syria is in the same boat. I expect that the WMDs we haven't found since our Iraq invasion were just moved to Syria. If we want to win this war then we'll eventually have to confront and invade Syria, too.

I agree that we are in a war against Moslems. Further, I believe that its a war against ALL Moslems, whether we admit this or not. There are NO Moslem "moderates". That kind of thinking is PC bullshit, not borne out by the facts.

Lately, I've been trying to appreciate the irony of what 911 has wrought. The stupid ass half of this country that are dumbass Democrats are largely located in the high-density population centers. These are also the high-value targets that the mad Moslem murderers seek to destroy. At some point, these Moslem fanatics will be successful in carrying out another atrocity on the scale of the Twin Towers disaster. And the blame could be laid right at the feet of the potso son-of-a-bitches that did everything they could to hamstring and sandbag our ability to conduct our current conflict. And it'll serve 'em right!

[philosofy123]

I agree that we are in a war against Moslems. Further, I believe that its a war against ALL Moslems, whether we admit this or not. There are NO Moslem "moderates". That kind of thinking is PC bullshit, not borne out by the facts. GOOD POINT!

I still think that we should have left Saddam alone or even helped him invade Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

[Tolik]

I liked your dissertation about the reasons for this massive revival of militant Islam even I disagree with some other things :)

About not CONNECTing THE DOTS AND REALIZing THE DANGER OF RADICAL ISLAM: somebody said it well, that Leftists don't even have a hindsight as 20/20. Perfect.

About reasons to go to Iraq, not Iran or Saudi Arabia. First, I disagree with your recollection about "everybody" being enthusiastic about Afghanistan. There was very strong opposition to it. Its later when they needed a platform to critique us for Iraq, they (very many of them) started saying (lying) that they were supportive to efforts in Afghanistan, but against actions in Iraq.

Choosing the next point was logical as well. Iraq was a known felon on parole. Brutal dictator in violation of truth agreements that suspended the Gulf War I, not actually ended it, bluffing or not, but very convincingly anyway about WMDs in a country the least religiously brainwashed... Who can be opposed to taking him out?

We underestimated cynicism of the Left and Europeans. It is only IF theory, but I am absolutely convinced, that IF we had a president Gore (or Clinton for that matter) who repeated ALL the actions of President Bush, we'd have no sizable opposition to this war.

When you go into the enemy territory, you need a base of operation. Iraq is the best STARTing place. If we wanted just to level the place, any would do: Saudi Arabia, Syria, whatever. But, if wanted to try to democratize, the Iraq was and still is our best chance. Far from being 100% chance, but the best.

I do agree with you of course, that from the point of moral clarity announcing Saudi Arabia as the enemy and giving all possible support to Iranian opposition would be the right thing to do. I share the disappointment that we don't do it.

In the second term perhaps?

[philosofy123]

We underestimated cynicism of the Left and Europeans. It is only IF theory, but I am absolutely convinced, that IF we had a president Gore (or Clinton for that matter) who repeated ALL the actions of President Bush, we'd have no sizable opposition to this war.

I agree. In addition, I submit that we should have kept Saddam in power to control radical Islam, and give him weopans to start a second war against Iran, and Saudi Arabia. As he get the thing raging, we could have easily come to his help without being blamed of a war against the holy sesspool called Mecca, and Medina!

[genghis]

nice post.
Along with Ann Coulter and Thomas Sowell, this guy is rapidly becoming my favorite columnist.