Crossing the Rubicon

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

For good or evil, George W. Bush will have to cross the Rubicon on judicial nominations, politicized indictments, Iraq, the greater Middle East, and the constant frenzy of the Howard Dean wing of the Democratic party — and now march on his various adversaries as never before. Continue reading “Crossing the Rubicon”

The Folly of Apology

Americans need to muster the necessary grit to win.

by Bruce S. Thornton

Private Papers

The stories about the video of US troops burning the bodies of dead Taliban are disgusting––but not because of anything our troops may have done to the corpses of fanatical murderers. Continue reading “The Folly of Apology”

What I Have Seen

Wisdom from a higher-ed career

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Magazine

The lament about our failed schools and universities is by now familiar. From the left, the complaint is that they are underfunded, even ignored by a shortsighted and heartless public. Continue reading “What I Have Seen”

Getting the Military’s Record Straight

Critics miss the big picture on military accomplishments.

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

Last week’s approval of the Iraqi constitution saw 10 million people freely vote in the Arab world’s first democracy. The jihadists cannot be entirely defeated without such a political solution. Yet Iraq’s democratic voters would never even have had an opportunity without American soldiers, whose sacrifices offered a chance of reform. Continue reading “Getting the Military’s Record Straight”

Battles Change, Wars Don’t

From ancient Greece to modern Iraq, history shows us that fear, honor and self-interest drive hostilities between the states.

by Victor Davis Hanson

Los Angeles Times

Modernists like to believe that we have entered an entirely new era of armed conflict. To some military thinkers, it’s the primordial nature of the terrorists’ beheadings, suicide bombings and improvised explosive devices that has marked a completely new form of “asymmetrical warfare” in which the two sides are terribly mismatched. Continue reading “Battles Change, Wars Don’t”

With a Whimper

How the violence in Iraq will end.

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

The Western media was relatively quiet about the quite amazing news from the recent trifecta in Iraq: very little violence on election day, Sunni participation, and approval of the constitution. Those who forecasted that either the Sunnis would boycott, or that the constitution would be — and should be — rejected, stayed mum. Continue reading “With a Whimper”

The Season of Our Discontent

Party politics seems only to frustrate the citizenry.

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

Americans — never more affluent or privileged — are in a gloomy mood. Continue reading “The Season of Our Discontent”

An American “Debacle”?

More unjustified negativity on the war in Iraq.

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

In a recent Los Angeles Times op-ed entitled “American Debacle” Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national-security adviser to President Carter, begins with: Continue reading “An American “Debacle”?”

An Honest Missive

Zawahiri boasts strategy for “victory of Islam.”

by Bruce S. Thornton

Private Papers

The website of the Director of National Intelligence just published a letterfrom Al Qaeda’s number two leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head-terrorist in Iraq. Continue reading “An Honest Missive”

The First Clash of Civilization

by Victor Davis Hanson

Times Literary Supplement

Persian Fire: The first world empire and the battle for the West by Tom Holland (Little, Brown: 418pp.) Continue reading “The First Clash of Civilization”