These Are Historic Times; Is it to be Lincoln or Sisyphus? by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online ^

[the_greatest_country_ever]

Victor Hanson never fails to be brilliant.

[JohnGalt]

Supporting wars on civilians is brilliant?

[Sabertooth]

((((((growl)))))

[aculeus]

Supporting wars on civilians is brilliant?

Do you know who invented the phrase "site pest"?

Me.

[BOBTHENAILER]

So remember, this August Americans lost 100 brave soldiers fighting selflessly for the liberty of others while thousands of Frenchmen perished through their children's neglect and self-absorption.

I love this guy's columns.

[Billthedrill]

I doubt seriously if finding either Saddam or bin Laden will help matters so much as sticking it through until the new Iraq can rise to its feet. That will not be a pivotal moment, but a slow, incremental victory that will only be appreciated in retrospect. In the meantime there will be endless carpers desperate to downplay progress in an attempt to validate their discredited pessimism. Let them talk. It's all they can do while real men and women are building a country.

[SAMWolf]

Good article. Thanks for the ping saber.

[skeeter]

Inspiring piece. That Hanson can write.

I pray he's correct as well.

[dighton]

Do you know who invented the phrase "site pest"? Me.

It deserves a place in the OED.

[Damocles]

"Do you know who invented the phrase "site pest"?

Snicker...

[w_over_w]

Like Sisyphus, we have pushed our terrible rock nearly to the top of the hill. We need only a few dramatic final and critically symbolic shoves — either the capture of Saddam Hussein, proof of bin Laden's demise, textual or material evidence of WMDs, or the finalization of a legitimate government in Baghdad — to go over the top, showing the discontented at home how far we have come.

Only to see the "left" turn to another "hill of discontent" and the media whores ignore "how far we have come" in order to regurgitate another campaign of lies. When "the terrible rock" we are pushing is the "hate America left" and reaching the top is it's exposure as the enemies of freedom; that will be a day to sing "Glory be to God".

[Paradox]

I think an American pilot who flew over the peaks of Afghanistan or a Marine colonel now patrolling in Iraq was far more likely to ensure that his aged mother back home lives under humane conditions than was a Frenchman this summer on his month-long vacation on the Mediterranean coast.

Zing!

[Publius6961]

What a profound thought!
all terrorists are civilians.

D'OH!

[JohnGalt]

Actually I was talking about Southern civilians whom "Sherman cut through Georgia" to ensure Lincoln's re-election.

Really put the Clinton body count to shame, no?

I don't really consider that notion brilliant.

[Held_to_Ransom]

Don't forget the cotton reclamation act. Slaves were used to strip white women of their undergarments, comb the material back into bales of cotton and then sell it to Yankees. Brutal stuff. Everyone denies it, but I know you know it's true.

[xJones]

I think an American pilot who flew over the peaks of Afghanistan or a Marine colonel now patrolling in Iraq was far more likely to ensure that his aged mother back home lives under humane conditions than was a Frenchman this summer on his month-long vacation on the Mediterranean coast.Zing!

How true. Just think how the French have tried to lambast the U.S. for deaths in ridding Iraq of the Saddam gang,and the loses there were at least 14,000 less than the French August heat deaths. Their own heat deaths were just another example of Gallic indifference to mass suffering. The French were so quick to post pictures of the one little Iraqi boy who tragically had both his arms blown off in the attacks. Strangely, they haven't shown pictures of dehydrated dead French grannies.

[BlueLancer]

"Actually I was talking about Southern civilians whom "Sherman cut through Georgia" to ensure Lincoln's re-election."

And where were the Confederate armies? Hood decided not to face Sherman and headed north, to be destroyed by Thomas. Joe Johnston was brought back from the ranks of the "living dead" to command an force that tried to outmaneuver Sherman but couldn't, wouldn't, and didn't face Shermans until after Charleston had been taken and Sherman turned north to join Grant.

Who left the civilians to face the wrath of Sherman's Bummers? The elite and the military of the Confederacy. Why? Because Hood was stupid, Johnston spent too much time looking for his "Chancellorsville/Fredericksburg", and the Southern government was eating its young in defeat.

Just like these modern Cassandras (who willingly accepted all of the benefits of the peacetime Army but somehow didn't realize that the Army is constructed for war), it was the southern wives and mothers who complained to their soldier husbands and sons and led to large numbers of deserters, abandoning the cause to alleviate their suffering. In the end, they brought their destruction on themselves.

[Carry_Okie]

But just as Sisyphus was forever doomed to start pushing his rock anew — once it cascaded back just as he reached the apex — so shall we too have to start all over again should we lose our nerve with the summit now within sight. And such large boulders roll faster and in deadlier fashion downhill than during the slow and arduous push up.

Up to this point, I think Hanson had it right. He has no substantive proof that we are anywhere near "the summit."

Pakistan continues her machinations, Iran approaches nuclear capability, North Korea is close to an intercontinental delivery system, FARC in Colombia is taking technical assistance from Castro (who has considerable bio-warfare capabilities) and financial help from Chavez, China is developing MIRV capabilities, Brazil is also cooperating with Cuba, and Messico is invading our southern region with impunity while Islam is the fastest growing religion there.

Meanwhile, we are fast going broke.

What summit?

[the_greatest_country_ever]

This is not meant in any way to diminish the vast, encyclopedic knowledge and erudition you possess in the skillful way you frequently bring your particular point across here at FR.

Obviously,you are quite talented in making use of your excellent cognitive abilities and considerable language skills to prove your point by making some ludicrous comment engineered to offend me so that I might engage in defending my comments.

But I am on to you (wink,wink) and will not take the bait. So sorry.

My original comment speaks for itself.

[Cicero]

Hanson is brilliant. But he's a voice crying in the wilderness. The usual suspects in the media are immune to reason, because they don't care to listen to rational argument. They just want to bash Bush with any tool at hand, even if it undermines our country. Similarly, they wanted to praise clinton in anyway possible, even if it undermined our country.

They are spoiled, elite scum.