Victor Davis Hanson: So Lucky to Have Them

VDH ^ | April 18, 2004 | Victor Davis Hanson

[quidnunc]

American soldiers are as impressive abroad as we are embarrassing at home

These are not really dark times. Rather I think in some ways they are among the finest in our history. No other country would or could send its youth 7,000 miles away to end fascism, implement consensual government, and adhere to its principled mission amid cynicism, cheap caricature, and increasing danger.

Let us pay little attention to a commission of ex-politicians, media-hungry know-it-alls, and Washington insiders. In the current 9-11 hearings, along partisan lines and to the hisses and applause of the stacked gallery, grandstanders have tried to take apart a government even as it wages war for our national survival. None of our ancestors would have entertained such a circus — haggling over Roosevelt’s culpability for Pearl Harbor as Americans were dying at Okinawa.

The performances of Mssrs. Ben-Veniste and Kerrey, along with Ms. Gorelick, are so self-contradictory, so at odds with their own past recorded statements, and so patently partisan that they have managed in a space of a few days to question what heretofore have been mostly reputable careers. So pay no attention to them at all. Any good that will come out of such an investigation in the midst of a terrible global war has already been forfeited by the commission’s election-year timing and cheap manner of inquiry. If we wished to win this war, it would be far better instead for Americans to review those so rarely played tapes of the falling towers, the innocents jumping from so high above, the toxic cloud that engulfed the city, and the mug shots of those creepy Middle Eastern mass murderers than to allot blame to us rather than to them.

Let us pay no attention either to a series of pundits, senior statesmen emeriti, and public triangulators who opposed the Iraqi war, then quickly got on board after the three-week victory (“we are all neoconservatives now”) — only most recently in their infinite wisdom they claim that the entire enterprise was flawed and mistaken from the outset as the Marines renew war in the streets of Fallujah. If in two weeks, the US military crushes Mr. Sadr, disbands his militias, and subdues the Sunni Triangle, as the Iraqi interim government suddenly basks in its reflected glory, these same critics will metamorphosize yet a third or fourth time into supporters of “remaking the Middle East landscape.”

-snip-

[quidnunc]

FYI

[lainde]

bttt

[jnarcus]

I love this guy. If he ain't married I am gonna get in my car and drvie over the ugly pass at 152 and hunt him down on the old Bulldog campus ( or maybe in the hills)...VDH has always gotten it right and this is just one more brilliant piece

[Tolik]

The world is watching the Baathist and Islamic warriors of the Sunni Triangle and the Shiite militias and what they see they most surely do not like—for these fascists and theocrats are as foul and odious folk as they are on the wrong side of history. For a year now our soldiers have privately assured us that they were dealing with an enemy primordial and cruel. Now with the proof of filmed executions, desecration of the dead, the macabre hostage taking, and the shooters caught on tape firing from mosques and schools, the global community at last sees that this really is a war between civilization and barbarism, and one, for the world’s own sake, we Americans cannot and will not lose.

At a time when bin Laden assured the Middle East that Americans were weak and decadent, the US military tore apart the most fanatical and savage fighters of a savage Middle East—the only reprieve came from diplomats who fretted about the rhetoric of the hapless Arab Street. Far better than we at home, our soldiers grasped that fighting fascists for consensual government is a noble cause and should have been the source of great pride among the American people.

No, despite all the chaos in Washington, these are not bad, but rather noble times, among the best I think in our history. So let us remember the famous words of Virgil –indeed perhaps the most moving in all of Latin literature.

Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit

“The day will come when even this ordeal will be a sweet thing to remember.”

And so it shall be when it is all said and done.

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

[GAgal]

Our family has found a wonderful way to support the troops. Through Soldiers Angels (http://www.soldiersangels.com/) we were given the name/address of a young Marine recently deployed to Afghanistan. It is so great to have a specific person to pray for, write to, and send needed items (eye wash, gatorade, etc.) Please consider going to their website and "adopting" someone who needs your love and support.

[MEG33]

Thank you ,Tolik..

[Pan_Yans Wife]

ping

[PGalt]

Thanks, Thanks.

Beautiful Mind

[metesky]

Great column. Thanks quidnunc and Tolik.

I email Hanson's column to my non-FReeper conservative family members to buck them up and give them talking points and to my liberal family members to shame them and piss them off.

[Publius6961]

It is hard to believe that until recently, VDH was simply an academic minding his own business and avoiding judgement of any kind. He has interpreted history, specially the "Western" way of war, and analyzed the motivations of a free society vs all manner of totalitarian historical wannabes.
That he has recently began to open up and express his opinion about the history he is now living, makes him one American that will be long remembered. His insight is based on knowledge and insight gained from historical knowledge most of us can never hope to obtain.

[wayoverontheright]

In the current 9-11 hearings, along partisan lines and to the hisses and applause of the stacked gallery, grandstanders have tried to take apart a government even as it wages war for our national survival.

Sad but true.

It's really disconcerting that a large segment of our country's people are ignorant of this fact, and another large faction is pulling for the Bush administration to BE taken apart.

[CatoRenasci]

vdh BUMP!

[MattinNJ]

Another great article worthy of a standing ovation.

[Kryptonite]

Thank you VDH!

[BayouCoyote]

BUMP.

[bigfootbob]

bttt

[Captain Kirk]

If Victor Davis Hanson is so eager to expend American blood and treasure to end fascism in every nook and cranny of the planet why isn't he on his hind legs demanding that we intervene in such hell holes as the Western Sudan and Zimbabwee?

[Miss Marple]

We first go to those places where we will help our own defense as well as liberate people. The Sudan will be liberated as well, and I think there is already pressure on Zimbabwe's worthless dictator.

But then you knew that, didn't you? You just wanted to gripe.

[ConservativeStLouisGuy]

LadyDoc posted this article in full about four hours earlier over on THIS thread....

Quidnunc,


There you go again....


"Did I forget to post the full article again? D'OH!!"

FReegards,

ConservativeStLouisGuy