[LS]

Victor Hanson says all this, though much better, in his new book, "The Autumn of War."

[kinghorse]

I've said this all along. Policy is dictated by history and how future historians will write the history of our time. Any time in the past, when the USA was attacked indirectly, she found the sponsor and punished them.

Barbary Pirates is the closest thing to 9-11 cum Saddam's downfall. The Barbary pirates were "encouraged" by Spain to board American ships and enslave American sailors. Spain thought she could hide behind state-less terrorists. She found out otherwise when the USA pre-empted the threat and chased the Spanish Fleet back to Spanish ports and out of places as far flung as Puerto Rico and the Phillipines. History doesn't dwell on the disconnect. History makes the connection and demands American action to uphold her honor and prestige. Someone had to pay for 9-11.

The real enemy, the hidden enemy surely knows the next state-less terror attack will mark them as doomed men. Hence no more attacks. Genius.

[Valin]

I would not wish to fight the United States — either militarily, politically, or culturally. For every threat, our history teaches us that Americans offer not just a rejoinder, but the specter of a devastating answer of a magnitude almost inconceivable to those now chanting and threatening in the streets of the Middle East.
Do they have any idea of what sort of dangerous people we really are? Do they understand the history of the names of those ships now off their coasts, like the USS Peleliu or Enterprise, or the pedigree of the 82nd or 101st Airborne?
Victor Davis Hanson