[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]

----------------------------

[Old Sarge]

Another good article that no one will read.

[PORD]

Very Intelligent, very excellent

[tentmaker]

This is an AMAZING must-read article!

[NeilGus]

I would like to know the total military deaths (including accidents) while Bush was in office and compare it with the number of deaths while Clinton was in office.

I know in the 1980’s we had about 2,500 deaths per year from accidents. Of course, the military was much larger.

[Rummyfan]

VDH bump!

[metesky]

T, over here. The Man speaks.

[Wyatt's Torch]

VDH is dead-on as usual. He’s the best in the business right now.

[Billthedrill]

VDH is certainly correct about perspective. It is heartening to consider the difference in treatment between modern historians and the contemporary press hysteria (a very good deal of which is still perfectly accessible) during the U.S. Civil War. One difficulty these days is precisely the same as then - far too many reporters have attempted to craft a narrative on the spot instead of simply stating observed facts. This gives them a vested interest that hinders successive facts that do not fit the narrative. For all the derision that modern journalism tends to direct at "objective" journalism, the latter does at least free the reporter from looking like a complete fool after the shooting stops (and the Pulitzers have been awarded).

I often quote Chou En Lai on perspective and will repeat that - when asked in the 1970's what he felt the effects of the French Revolution of the 1780's was, his reply was "It's too early to tell."

[Tolik]

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

       Let me know if you want in or out.

Links:    FR Index of his articles:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson
                His website: http://victorhanson.com/
                NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
                Pajamasmedia:   http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/

[Yardstick]

*el Bumpo*

[CutePuppy]

Fantastic article, great interview by VDH. Thank you for posting.

[happygrl]

One of his best.

[BroJoeK]

"I am not one of these people that is common now who see World War I as a tragedy in the sense that there was no moral or ethical difference between Germany of 1914 and France and England.

"If one were to look at the nature of German aggression in Europe, the nature of German colonies overseas, or what the German agenda was, it seems to me that it was very different than the liberal tradition in France and England that prevailed.

"It’s a tragedy that it had to end in a war like that, but given the superiority of the German Wehrmacht in 1914, I don’t know any other way how anybody would have stopped it. In terms of artillery, in terms of personal arms, in terms of general staff, railroads, communications, esprit de corps, it was so far superior to the colonial armies of France and England. The ambitions of the German Kaiser were so ambitious, I don’t know how anybody could have done anything other than what they did. They would have either had to appease them or capitulate.

"It was a tragedy. But I do think there was a qualitative difference in the fact that the Allies won. It had a profound effect on Europe.

"The tragedy of World War I, it seems to me, is how the Versailles Treaty ended and the Allies were not willing to remain vigilant, because given their enormous losses in the war there was sort of a utopian pacifism that followed. "

[sitetest]

Great article. Thanks.