Moving Forward: The Need For Innovations In Technology And Strategy
by Kiron K. Skinner // Strategika Two broad sets of U.S. military strategies during the second half of the twentieth century combined ideas, innovation, and technology in ways that offset Soviet conventional (and later nuclear) superiority in arms and military forces. These strategies also contributed to the overall state of cold war, as opposed to […]
VDH UltraAcademy Untoward 2
From an Angry Reader: After reading your discombobulated thoughts on Academy Awards, Mayor Bloomberg, et al., I now know why newspapers have traditionally been used as toilet tissue. M. Buendia Breinigsville PA Victor Davis Hanson’s Reply: Dear Angry Reader M. Buendia, Are such angry letters mass produced in some central clearing house? No argument: CHECK; […]
VDH UltraAcademy Untoward
03/17/17 From an Angry Reader: Mr. Hanson. Don’t know what Acadamy awards you were watching but my husband and I watched the whole show. There was no bashing of Mr Trump at all during the entire show. Jimmy Kimmel did some jokes but light weight. So please we are tired of all the lies .. […]
It’s Not Just the Technology: Beyond Offset Strategies
By Colonel Joseph (Joe) Felter (ret.) // Strategika A range of breakthrough technologies are emerging today that have the potential to radically change how we fight and deter threats across all conflict domains—air, land, sea, space, and cyber. Artificial intelligence, directed energy, robotics, and machine learning are just a few examples. Significantly, unlike in previous […]
Deterrence and Human Nature
By Victor Davis Hanson// National Review The dream of a therapeutic utopia without punishment for wrongdoing fails in practice. Deterrence is the strategy of persuading someone in advance not to do something, often by raising the likelihood of punishment. But in the 21st century, we apparently think deterrence is Neanderthal and appeals to the worst […]
You Say You Want A Revolution?
By Thomas Donnelly To paraphrase the Beatles: Well, you know, you’d better free your mind instead; you may want a revolution but ought to settle for some evolution. It is an article of revealed religion among defense elites that “we live in a relentlessly changing and fiercely competitive world.” Those words were from former […]
The World on January 20, 2017
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review Red-blue tensions at home, mounting dangers abroad Most Americans are worried about our domestic crises. Obama left office after doubling the debt to $20 trillion. Near-zero interest rates over eight years have impoverished an entire generation of seniors — and yet remain key to servicing the costs of such […]
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From an Angry Reader: Read your column on immigration published in the 2/24/2017 Morning Call (Lehigh Valley, PA) and was wondering – you seemed to indicate that falsification of government affidavits should be grounds for deportation. Since it appears that Melanie Trump was employed in violation of her visa in the mid 1990’s, and lied […]
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From and Angry Reader: Dear Professor Hanson, Evidently you are a supporter of Donald Trump. If I read your essay on this subject correctly, you seem to be implying that, unlike the false elitism of the Washington Beltway, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley, we should look to the real basis of brilliance and repute in a […]
Don’t Sweat the Big Stuff
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review Politicians who cannot cope with the realities of governing should stop fantasizing about utopia. The recent Academy Awards ceremony turned into a monotony of hate. Many of the stars who mounted the stage ranted on cue about the evils of President Donald Trump. Such cheap rhetoric is easy. But […]
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03/10/17 From an Angry Reader: Mr. Hansen – In this commentary, you appear to be engaging in sophistry. In other words, you appear to be decisively imparting falsehoods. First you fabricate a definition of the “American elite” comprised exclusively of progressives. Then you fabricate a reality where the mainstream press disseminates lies, where college campuses […]
The Ancient Laws of Unintended Consequences
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review Eight years of a fawning press have made the Left reckless. The classical idea of a divine Nemesis (“reckoning” or “downfall”) that brings unforeseen retribution for hubris (insolence and arrogance) was a recognition that there are certain laws of the universe that operated independently of human concerns. Call Nemesis […]
Talk Radio, Cable News, the Mainstream Media, and the News Revolution
The Corner The one and only. by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review In the hubbub over Trump’s attack on the media, we sometimes forget that Barack Obama et al. customarily went after talk-radio and cable-news conservatives — whose job, after all, was opinion journalism — as biased, whereas Trump went more after news-gathering organizations who […]
Is the American Elite Really Elite?
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review The public no longer believes that privilege and influence should be predicated on titles, brands, and buzz. Establishment furor over the six-week-old Trump administration is growing. Outraged New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently compared Trump’s victory to disasters in American history that killed and wounded thousands […]
Presidential Payback for Media Hubris
by Victor Davis Hanson//Defining Ideas This article is reprinted from Defining Ideas, an online journal at the Hoover Institution. To read the original article click here. Donald Trump conducted a press conference recently as if he were a loud circus ringmaster whipping the media circus animals into shape. The establishment thought the performance was […]
The Metaphysics of Trump
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review Paradox: How does a supposedly bad man appoint good people eager to advance a conservative agenda that supposedly more moral Republicans failed to realize? We variously read that Trump should be impeached, removed, neutralized — or worse. But until he is, are his appointments, executive orders, and impending legislative […]
‘False Documents’
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review The Wall Street Journal wrote an unfortunate and misleading op-ed today on the new protocols on illegal immigration issued by the Department of Homeland Security — epitomized by the Journal’s weird sentence, “Mr. Kelly’s order is so sweeping that it could capture law-abiding immigrants whose only crime is using […]
Why the Central Valley votes more conservative
By Victor Davis Hanson// San Francisco Chronicle Photo: Andrew Harrer, Bloomberg Voters living in 85 percent of the country preferred Donald Trump, but he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. Not long ago on a farm south of Fresno, I watched a poorly paid mechanic in silence repair a gate’s hydraulic ram as easily […]
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From an Angry Reader: You are most definitely wrong, California could go it alone. They are after all the sixth largest economy in the world. If secession is in their future the US Federal government would be more likely to fall into chaos than California. We need them more than they need us. As for […]
The Labyrinth of Illegal Immigration
by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review Navigating self-interest, ideals, and public opinion in the debate about illegal immigration. Activists portray illegal immigration solely as a human story of the desperately poor from south of the border fleeing misery to start new, productive lives in the U.S. — despite exploitation and America’s nativist immigration laws. But […]