Victor Davis Hanson: War Stories - Two versions of what we should do next.

National Review Online ^ | December 01, 2006 | Victor Davis Hanson

[neverdem]

Ping

[F-117A]

VDH Bump!!!

[cajungirl]

Man, it makes me tired. It really discourages me.

[Salem]

Victor Davis Hanson in excellence, as always.

The "Minority View" is the one most prevalent at Free Republic. If the deterioration of the "Majority View" prevails in the years ahead, the men and women of Free Republic will find themselves once again in that bare knuckle street fight in the arena of the "war of ideas" that this Internet phenomena was founded in.

I'd hate to have to go back to that, but ...always ready to throw down on this end, nonetheless.  

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AMERICA AT WAR
At Salem the Soldier's Homepage ~
Honored member of FReeper Leapfrog's "Enemy of Islam" list.
Islam, a Religion of Peace®? Some links...  by backhoe
Translated Pre-War IRAQ Documents  by jveritas
Mohammed, The Mad Poet Quoted....  by PsyOp
"PLAES DO NOT TOCH THE WAR"  by AnnaZ
One FReeper On The Line  by SNOWFLAKE
The Clash of Ideologies - A Review

"...It's time we recognized the nature of the conflict. It's total war and we are all involved. Nobody on our side is exempted because of age, gender, or handicap. The Islamofacists have stolen childhood from the world." [FReeper Retief]

"...That the totalitarian force pitted against freedom wears a religious makes this civil war among mankind all the more difficult to engage. Loving freedom as we do, it seems reprehensible to deliberate against a religion. But this is no ordinary religion as it demands absolute obedience of all to their religion at the cost of freedom itself." [FReeper Backtothestreets]

[jveritas]

Fortunately, President Bush is on our side, and he will always be. He is the only CIC and he is the only one who makes the real decisions on foreign policy.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The press is the propaganda arm of the American left and they have an agenda...see this:

Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left

[rbg81]

It was not the Patriot Act that banned operas, condemned cartoons, allowed films to be ostracized, or muzzled teachers, but Western self-censorship and fear. Awesome line! I bow in this man's general direction.

[Christian4Bush]

bttt

[La Enchiladita]

Fortunately, President Bush is on our side, and he will always be.

Amen to that! He has certainly proved himself consistent, strong and principled... unique among today's breed of politicians.

As for the course we will take vis a vis Iraq, I give you an excerpt from his opening remarks at yesterday's joint press conference with MP al-Maliki:

The Prime Minister and I also discussed the review of our strategy in Iraq that is now nearing completion. I assured the Prime Minister that our review is aimed at strengthening the capacity of the sovereign government of Iraq to meet their objectives, which we share. As part of the review, I've asked our military leaders in the Pentagon and those on the ground in Iraq to provide their recommendations on the best way forward.

Others outside the government are conducting their own review, and I look forward to hearing their recommendations. I want to hear all advice before I make my decisions about adjustments to our strategy and tactics in Iraq to help this government succeed.

[Seaplaner]

RBG, I agree with your opinion about VDH's "awesome line" (among many such similarly well-crafted turns of phrases.

And the phrase ...Western self-censorship and fear is a nicely understated way of saying successfully terrorized.

.

[jveritas]

Thanks for posting the President quotation from President Bush his press conference with Maliki.

[Salem]

Of course you are right. For two more years.

Then it gets interesting.

[La Enchiladita]

No problem. The whole press conference transcript ... available at the WH website ... is a keeper, IMO.

[Billthedrill]

A nicely written summary. My guess is that the "majority" view is in reality the one adopted most publicly and loudly by the people with the biggest microphones and repeated by other people who don't know any better.

Israel isn't the only economic success story in the region, Lebanon was at one time. Iraq aspires to be one in the future. There are, to be sure, different reasons why each has so inflamed the violent resentment of militant Islam but I do find it revealing that at least part of that resentment stems from the envy of the successful by the unsuccessful who have comforted themselves with the illusion that success is theft, (and conversely, that theft is success). That classic criticism of Western culture is shared by communists and anti-colonialists, who are the company in which the Islamists march. Chavez and Mugabe understand it perfectly well; so did Trotsky and bin Laden.

For these, Iraq cannot be allowed to succeed. For it to do so would be an affirmation of an activist American foreign policy that is anathema to leftists everywhere, including Congress. For Iraq to succeed would a rejection of militant Islam as the only route to a better life. For Iraq to prosper would be a terrible threat to the autocrats who populate the Middle East. These compose a dark alliance of those who either would tear Iraq apart or condone it, each for his or her own selfish reasons. Not a one of them, including those of them who are Iraqi, has the welfare of the Iraqi people foremost in mind.

[gonzo]

BTTT................FRegards

[sageb1]

Thanks for the ping. Hanson nailed it as usual. Maybe I should give burqas as Christmas gifts, as the majority just doesn't get it.

[backtothestreets]

"Finally, we are still one lax day away from another September 11, and will continue to be so until the currency and appeal of radical Islamism are history. "

Oh heck! OK, I'm part of what VDH describes as the Minority Opinion, but I'm so confused! I view all Islam has the problem, not just radical Islamism. Does that make me a part of the minority Minority Opinion, or a part of the majority Minority Opinion? Oh well. However I might be defined, I'm up for the fight.

[AlaskaErik]

To believe the majority opinion you'd have to have your head so far up your ass that it's now coming out of your throat. Saudi Arabia has been spreading wahhabism for decades now, radicalizing even so-called moderate muslim populations, such as the Balkins and the far east.

Muslims in Europe are totally unassimilated and will become the majority in most countries there starting in about 40 years. Anyone who thinks they are going to embrace the status quo there is nuttier than the fruit cake they're about to get this Christmas. Those old Europeans who have been suckling on the government teat for so long are in for a rude surprise. The majority muslim population is not going to let aging westerners live at government expense.

As for the middle east. Again, anyone who thinks the palis and all the other usual suspects there are going to accept living side by side with Israel is in total denial. Muslims will never accept the idea of Israel being an independent state. Muslims dream and live for the day Israel is destroyed. They will settle for nothing less.

Radicalized islam is the wave of the future. As any demographer can tell you, Europe is lost. Their low birth rates coupled with exploding muslim birth rates will ensure that even those who are middle aged today will be around to start seeing this downfall. The lavish government handouts, medical care and pensions can only be financed with an expanding population. Today's contracting populations cannot sustain such a system and thus will begin the destruction of Europe. The muslims will merely finish it.

At least we have a chance. Americans at least have a spine...well half of us do. And we're still reproducing at sustainment levels, so our working population will continue to increase. Even better, those same demographics that are destroying Europe will benefit us, because guess who's not reproducing as much in this country? Liberals! Homosexuals can't reproduce. Feminazis won't reproduce. All those self-absorbed young liberals can't be bothered to reproduce. The only Democratic constituency that's still reliably reproducing are blacks, and they've been so marginalized by the Democrats that young blacks more and more are voting Republican.

So in 40 years or so, as Europe is imploding, America will pretty much be alone in the free world. And we need to prepare ourselves so that when the time comes, we can defend ourselves from the muslims hoards who will be at the gates. Because those hoards will have only one aim...our complete and total destruction.

[Blind Eye Jones]

America loves a success story... in the end Iraq has to be that. If America is tired think of how tired the terrorists are! The simple fact that Americans can shut off the TV and rest gives them relief from war that no terrorist can have. Americans are pampered compare to terrorists. But Americans still want honor and dignity and any story showing those qualities will attract them more than the bloody darkness of MSM. The battle of the home front is being lost but that can change overnight with one 9/11 explosion in the US or a series of successes in Iraq. I prefer success in Iraq!