[Tolik]

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

       Let me know if you want in or out

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

In September and early October 2002

Don't have to go past the first line to find sloppy fact checking....

[Sam Cree]

Read later

[snowsislander]

Who would have believed 60 years ago that the great critics of democracy in the Middle East would now be American novelists and European utopians, while Indians, Poles, and Japanese were supporting those who just wanted the chance to vote? Who would have thought that a young Marine from the suburbs of Topeka battling the Dark Ages in Fallujah — the real humanist — was doing more to aid the planet than all the billions of the U.N.?

Those on the left who are ignorant of history lectured the Bush administration that democracy has never come as a result of the threat of conflict or outright war — apparently the creation of a democratic United States, Germany, Japan, Italy, Israel, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Serbia, and Afghanistan was proof of the power of mere talk. In contrast, the old realist Right warned that strongmen are our best bet to ensure stability — as if Saudi Arabia and Egypt have been loyal allies with content and stable pro-American citizenries. In truth, George Bush's radical efforts to cleanse the world of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, bring democracy to the heart of the Arab world, and isolate Yasser Arafat were the most risky and humane developments in the Middle East in a century — old-fashioned idealism backed with force in a postmodern age of abject cynicism and nihilism.

Quite literally, we are living in the strangest, most perilous, and unbelievable decade in modern memory.

Professor Hanson uses the eye of a fine historian to observe today's events, and he brings an excellent pen to their chronicle.

It is a pity that those who style themselves as journalists cannot bring themselves to read such an accomplished writer and historian.

[Valin]

In September and early October 2002 we were warned that an invasion of Afghanistan was impossible — peaks too high, winter and Ramadan on the way, weak and perfidious allies as bad as the Islamists — and thus that the invasion would result in tens of thousands killed and millions of refugees.

Meanwhile back in the real world

More good news from Afghanistan
Winds of Change ^ | 11/15/04 | Arthur Chrenkoff


Posted on 11/19/2004 8:07:05 AM CST by Valin


Badam, a Pashtun nomad, might have been the oldest voter in Afghanistan's recent presidential election. While birth records are sparse in his country, Badam's mother had once told him he was born in the year of "zeym" (the inundation), as 1894 is still remembered in collective memory - making Badam 110 years old.

"Badam is old enough to remember some of the crucial moments in Afghanistan's early twentieth-century history. During the reign of the modernising King Amanullah [1919-29], he fought under Khan Haji against British forces. 'At that time I was a handsome boy and I had the strength to fight against British,' he said. "Now, by voting, Badam said he felt as if he had struck another blow for Afghan independence. 'I know it's not appropriate for my age, but I danced the Atan [a traditional Pashtun dance] today because it's one of the happiest days of my life,' he said.

"He said he could count such days on the fingers of one hand. 'The first was on my second wedding day, which was a love match, and the second was five years later, when I became father of a son,' he said. 'The third is today, when I decide my own destiny'." Millions of Badam's younger countrymen - and women - shared that experience with him just over a month ago. After decades of war and oppression, which left one million dead, forced some five million to flee across borders, and utterly devastated and impoverished the country, the Afghans are finally finding some reasons to be happy. Largely out of the international media spotlight, Afghanistan continues to progress along the winding road to peace, freedom and democracy. Here are some snapshots from the past four weeks of that journey:

Society

Reconstruction

Humanitarian Aid

The Coalition Troops

Security


(Excerpt) Read more at:
http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/005887.php#more

[RAY]

VDH nails it again!

[Monti Cello]

Another fascinating story is the leftist abdication of any sense of humanity. Remember the platitudes, 'Free Tibet', 'No One is Free when Others are in Chains', recall the outraged activism over Latin American politics, genocide in the Balkans, and apartheid in South Africa.

Now there is scant concern for apartheid in the Middle East, abject oppresssion of women, or appreciation of democracy as a higher form of politics.

Now the left has put human rights on the shelf. The implicit message to the masses is 'tough luck -- you're on your own as long as a Republican is in charge'.

The pursuit of human rights under Bush must be categorized as imperialism, and it must be suppressed for the sake of leftist petulance. Bush has taken the humanitarian mantle from the left, and leaves them sputtering excuses for regimes like the Taliban.

[hershey]

V.D. Hanson tells it like it is! Especially... 'Reactionary Old Europe, in concert with the ossified American Leftist elite, unleashed everything in its ample cultural arsenal: novels, plays, and op-ed columns calling for the assassination of President Bush..." He definitely has a way with words, and we do indeed live in interesting times.

[hershey]

'subversive ankle-biters'...another keeper.

[Billthedrill]

Outstanding essay. VDH nails it again.

Who would have thought that a young Marine from the suburbs of Topeka battling the Dark Ages in Fallujah — the real humanist — was doing more to aid the planet than all the billions of the U.N.?

It may well be that the Oil-for-Food scandal will take down not only the UN, but the entire, corrupt, "talk-but-do-nothing" multilateralist paradigm as well. I certainly hope so. It is a lot to ask of that young Marine to have to battle feudal throwbacks and the entirity of popular culture as well. But he won't, not this time. He does his thing, we do our thing.

What I'm suggesting here is that real Resistance is us.

[TigerTale]

Thank you. This article has given me a new tag-line...

[Just mythoughts]

"We are living in historic times, as all the landmarks of the past half-century are in the midst of passing away. The old left-wing critique is in shambles — as the United States is proving to be the most radical engine for world democratic change and liberalization of the age."

Eight years of Clintonism left us with no other options.

[maica]

Germany and France threw away their historic special relationships with America, while billions in Eastern Europe, India, Russia, China, and Japan either approved of our efforts or at least kept silent. Who would have believed 60 years ago that the great critics of democracy in the Middle East would now be American novelists and European utopians, while Indians, Poles, and Japanese were supporting those who just wanted the chance to vote? Who would have thought that a young Marine from the suburbs of Topeka battling the Dark Ages in Fallujah — the real humanist — was doing more to aid the planet than all the billions of the U.N.?

VDH can really put into a few clear paragraphs the essence of what we are facing in the coming years.

Trav, take a minute, if you can for this one.