A Reagan for Everybody

Who exactly was Ronald Reagan?

by Victor Davis Hanson

Private Papers

One of the strangest developments following the recent funeral of Ronald Reagan was the emergence of all sorts of “authentic” — and irreconcilable—Reagans. Continue reading “A Reagan for Everybody”

Do We Really Need More Troops In Iraq?

by Victor Davis Hanson

(A later version of this essay appears in the current issue ofCommentary Magazine.)

How many American troops should be posted in Iraq, beyond the present spike of 135,000—a number that was itself raised from the informally agreed-upon level of 115,000? Continue reading “Do We Really Need More Troops In Iraq?”

Elastic Definitions of Sexual Harassment

The high costs to free speech of vague legal terms and frivolous cases.

by Bruce S. Thornton

Private Papers

Even as the civil liberties fundamentalists continue to fret over the Patriot Act and the treatment of terrorists in our custody, a more insidious and dangerous assault on our freedom, one that has been going on for years now, continues apace. Continue reading “Elastic Definitions of Sexual Harassment”

Let Europe Be Europe

America should give up on the shattered Atlantic Alliance.

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Beware of punditry now assuring us that, because we have seen the error of our ways and are now penitent, Europe is back on board. A contrite Mr. Bush — his critics imply — now seeks to smile more like Reagan and bite his lip like Clinton, and drop the old, scary “dead or alive,” “Old Europe,” and “smoke ’em out” lingo. Continue reading “Let Europe Be Europe”

Ronald Reagan: What We’ve Forgotten

A shorter version of this essay appeared in a Reagan commemorative issue of National Review Magazine.

by Victor Davis Hanson

There will be a great deal of blanket praise written about Ronald Reagan in the next few days. Yet I don’t think his legacy will be judged by his unwavering ideological purity. Continue reading “Ronald Reagan: What We’ve Forgotten”

The Look Back

Why are we split over the war since 9/11?

by Victor Davis Hanson

Private Papers

Two views are emerging about our post-September-11 world. One is angry, but also therapeutic—and most often embraced by the Left. I think it goes roughly like this. Removing the Taliban in our initial rage might have for a moment seemed necessary, but things now in retrospect have proved not much better than before in Afghanistan and might well get worse. Continue reading “The Look Back”

Feeding the Minotaur

Our strange relationship with the terrorists continues.

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

As long as the mythical Athenians were willing to send, every nine years, seven maidens and seven young men down to King Minos’s monster in the labyrinth, Athens was left alone by the Cretan fleet. The king rightly figured that harvesting just enough Athenians would remind them of their subservience without leading to open rebellion — as long as somebody impetuous like a Theseus didn’t show up to wreck the arrangement. Continue reading “Feeding the Minotaur”

Reagan’s Second Act

Media concedes simple truth, not simpleton

by Bruce S. Thornton

Private Papers

Ronald Reagan’s death in the midst of a hotly contested presidential election has occasioned all manner of oddities. Continue reading “Reagan’s Second Act”

Rural Greece Under the Democracy

by Victor Davis Hanson

Times Literary Supplement

Rural Greece Under the Democracy by Nicholas F. Jones
Pennsylvania, 2004. xii + 330
$59.95

A version of this review appears in the June 25, 2004 issue of the Times Literary Supplement. Continue reading “Rural Greece Under the Democracy”

Our Look Back at Normandy

What our generation might have said a month later in July, 1944

by Victor Davis Hanson

Private Papers

Al Gore: General George Marshall—You, you…. You, go now! You approved of it; you signed off; you gave us the Philippines disaster, the B-17 slaughters, and now this. So go! Go, go, now! Continue reading “Our Look Back at Normandy”