Victor Davis Hanson: Come the Revisionists; Self-flattering, self-deluded – almost desperate

National Review ^ | April 24, 2005 | Victor Davis Hanson

[quidnunc]

Will the second Bush administration be less bellicose, more multilateral? That’s what some of the president’s critics are suggesting, after his much-publicized visit to Europe. Joseph S. Nye, author of Soft Power, thought he saw in Bush a new convert who had belatedly, but wisely, forsaken flawed concepts such as unilateralism and preemption and adopted instead the tenets of Nye’s own volume. “The most striking thing at this point in Bush’s second term,” Nye recently intoned, “is his belated discovery of the importance of diplomacy and soft power.”

Clinton NSC veteran Nancy Soderberg recently expressed worry that Bush’s policies — often the opposite of those of the Clinton administration and thus antithetical also to the precepts of Soderberg’s just-released but ill-timed The Superpower Myth — well, might just work. “It’s scary for Democrats,” she stammered on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, “I have to say … . Well, there’s still Iran and North Korea, don’t forget. There’s still hope for the rest of us … . There’s always hope that this might not work.” But later, when asked by Bill O’Reilly to explain her curious remarks, she echoed this strange new theme that Bush was finally getting it right: “I think there’s a second-term conversion going on with the Bush administration. I’d like to think it’s because they read my book. I think it has more to do with the fact that reality has seeped in. They’re starting to talk well of the French.”

-snip-

[quidnunc]

FYI

[Minuteman23]

Powerful and all true. Thanks for posting.

[Lorianne]

Great read. Thanks

[struggle]

Soderberg is one dangerous "thinker."

Hating Bush is better than defeating tyrannical regimes that threaten America to her.

[Bahbah]

they are peddling this bizarre notion that what led us into the mess culminating in 9/11 is what will now save us.

Their brains are in disconnect, but their mouths keep moving.

[elbucko]

..“Cheney sees the dark side of the world, a reality that largely eludes Democrats but not most Americans. He understands power and knows how to wield it, as opposed to the soft-power prose of intellectual Democrats.”

Not bloody likely. Part of being an "intellectual Democrat" is the inability to use, or imply, power effectively. It is an art that those Democrats who drive Saabs will never understand or poses.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

Anybody can appear kinder and gentler when the bad guys have been taken out and high noon has passed. Only then can the cowering townsfolk pour back onto Main Street to slap the sheriff on the back, applauding that his smoking gun is now safely and properly holstered — and all those nasty outlaw corpses are conveniently out of sight at the undertaker’s.

Go on home to your kids, Herb

[NutCrackerBoy]

[Liberals] portray the rest of the world as just a bunch of misunderstood bunny-rabbits...The Democrats need a Dick Cheney, especially on foreign policy...Cheney sees the dark side of the world, a reality that largely eludes Democrats but not most Americans. He understands power and knows how to wield it, as opposed to the soft-power prose of intellectual Democrats. -Leslie Gelb, no fan of George W. Bush, in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed

Instead the Dems dig themselves deeper in the pansy hole by opposing Bolton.

[Humidston]

I was getting needled by a lib not long ago on this very subject. Thanks to Mr. Hanson for providing me such outstanding ammunition. I sent the link to my lib relative and I doubt he'll have the courage to argue with it.

[Tolik]

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

       Let me know if you want in or out

[John Lenin]

Soderberg is a psuedo intellectual with the brainpower of a moth.

[okie01]

Soderberg is a psuedo intellectual with the brainpower of a moth.

That may be a generous assessment.

[John Lenin]

The really funny part is Soderberg is one of the smarter liberals ...

[okie01]

The really funny part is Soderberg is one of the smarter liberals ...

All things are relative, are they not?

[beebuster2000]

btt