2003

The Great Divide

Looking back on the fires of 9/11. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online So many things about September 11 have coalesced to define the attack as a singular event in American history. Three thousand Americans did not die in a fire, earthquake, or flood. Share This

Share This

Hoping We Fail

Who loses and who wins in the high-stakes poker in Iraq? by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online It is not hard to determine who wishes the United States to succeed in rebuilding Iraq along lines that will promote consensual government, personal freedom, and economic vitality: Hardly anyone. At least, few other than the Iraqi …

Hoping We Fail Read More »

Share This

Phase Three?

The enemy is growing desperate. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online After the first two conventional military victories in Afghanistan of November 2001 and this spring in Iraq, the recent bombings suggest that we are now entering a third phase: A desperate last-ditch war of attrition in which our enemies feel that bombing, suicide …

Phase Three? Read More »

Share This

The Awakening

We need a clean slate in the postbellum world. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online What is a base? Is it something lke the facility in Saudi Arabia that enrages the local population, provides a rallying cry for unhinged Islamists, protects a medieval monarchy from an emerging consensual society in Iraq, and can’t be used …

The Awakening Read More »

Share This

How We Collapse

The home front is more worrisome than the battlefield. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Democratic critics keep deconstructing federal reports about intelligence lapses that might have led to the tragedy of September 11. While they fault the administration — in some cases correctly — for an apparent lack of vigilance, they do not …

How We Collapse Read More »

Share This

Our Summer of Discontent?

Looking for symptoms of defeat by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The forces that win or lose wars are insidious, cumulative, and often hard to discern. Share This

Share This

War Folklore

Don’t listen to the latest groupspeak. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Just as we migrate from Scott Peterson to Kobe Bryant and back to Jessica Lynch, so too did the snowy peaks of Afghanistan bow out to the sandstorm-induced pause in Iraq and that in turn to 16 words of the president’s speech. …

War Folklore Read More »

Share This

The Corrections

Our rocky return to a much-needed balance in foreign policy. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The Greeks were fascinated with the need to adhere to the mean (to meson). The idea became commonplace that there was a sort of natural equilibrium in things that tended to pull events, emotions, and people themselves back …

The Corrections Read More »

Share This

War’s Bitter Laws

The rules of war existed long before we entered Iraq. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Here at the millennium, the conditions under which war must be waged by Western states appear to be like none other in the history of conflict. Share This

Share This

Old and in the Way

The American Street has sized up best the new paradoxes of foreign policy. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The events following 9/11 created an “empire” industry — millions of words written by pundits claiming that by intervening in Afghanistan and Iraq America was now a hegemon. Share This

Share This