by Victor Davis Hanson
Tribune Media Services
Bring up Iraq — and expect to end up in an argument. Conservatives are no different from liberals in rehashing the unpopular war, which has become a sort of whipping boy for all our subsequent problems. Read more →
Iran’s next move, a Senate impeachment trial, and the beginning of the Democratic primaries. Despite January and February’s uncertainties, Victor Davis Hanson, the Hoover Institution’s Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow, believes in this certainty: President Trump is on a path to reelection this fall.
Victor Davis Hanson analyses the recent escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran, grades the Trump Administration’s performance, and predicts what’s to come.
Victor Davis Hanson argues that American pressure on China, Iran, and North Korea is pushing all three countries to a breaking point — which may make each of them more dangerous.
Victor Davis Hanson describes how the impeachment proceedings by House Democrats — and the DOJ inspector general’s report — have exposed the weakness of the case against Donald Trump.
Victor Davis Hanson explains the parameters of what he calls the Trump Doctrine — deterrence without intervention — explains how it deviates from the post-Cold War consensus, and argues for why it’s a reasonable approach to a changing international landscape.
The latest issue of Strategika discusses The Value of Economic Sanctions
Victor Davis Hanson is the General Editor of Strategika.
Victor Davis Hanson talks about his National Review article "Kill Chic."
Victor Davis Hanson on Trump’s Unlikely Populism
Victor Davis Hanson discusses the damaging disclosure about Obama keeping tabs on the FBI Hillary Clinton email investigation, State Department unmasking, why Hillary’s and Obama’s hubris may be their own downfall and how this can very well be a Watergate or Iran-Contra type scandal.
Victor Davis Hanson is featured in a new episode of The Ricochet Podcast.
How Presidents Lie
It’s nothing new for a president to lie to us, but Obama’s style is unique.
by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online
In the past there have been all sorts of presidential fibbing. Some chief executives make promises that they know they probably cannot or will not keep. Before his reelection for his third term in the midst
of a world war, Franklin Roosevelt swore that he would never send American boys to fight in a foreign war. In just a little over a year, he did just that. Lyndon Johnson likewise before the 1964 election said he would not send troops to Vietnam. But once reelected, he sent nearly 200,000 troops to fight the North Vietnamese; by the time he left office, over a half-million Americans were deployed in Vietnam.
In 1988 presidential candidate George H. W. Bush pledged that he would not raise taxes and did so emphatically: “Read my lips — no new taxes!” But in 1990 he flipped and agreed to tax hikes.
Barack Obama has offered all sorts of similar empty pledges, like promising to close the federal detention center at Guantanamo Bay within a year of taking office. It is still open. Obama also promised to halve the deficit by the end of his first term. Instead he doubled it. Ditto Obama’s promises on the good things to follow Cash for Clunkers, on the shovel-ready jobs that would follow the stimulus, and on the summer of recovery to be spawned by massive borrowing. At your own job, if you promise the boss that you will do something and then don’t, you’re likely to get fired; when presidents do the same, it’s called politics. Read more →
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