Beyond the Braggadocio: Iran’s Ahmandinejad Far Weaker Than He Lets On
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The Iraq Study Group, prominent U.S. Senators and realist diplomats all want America to hold formal talks with the government of Iran. They think Tehran might help the United States disengage from Iraq and the general Middle East mess with dignity. That would be a grave error for […]
Why Radical Islam–And Why Now?
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Read any newspaper or turn on any news broadcast and you’re bound to encounter stories of Islamic radicals fighting, killing and threatening each other — and just about everyone else.
A Symphony Unheard
Go see The Nativity Story by Craig Bernthal Private Papers Here is the plot and the theme: God creates the universe, not because he needs to, since he is complete in himself, but as an act of gratuitous love.
What Is Annanism?
The triumph of the therapeutic over the tragic. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Everyone seems to take some joy in listening to outgoing secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, especially during the holidays. But just as with other such ethicists as a lip-biting Bill Clinton or creased-browed Jimmy Carter, Annan is as publicly […]
High Anxiety
How modernity feeds Arab anti-Semitism by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers There’s an Elvis Costello lyric that goes, “I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused.”
Talking to Iran: Moral and Strategic Mistake
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services One of the many bizarre recommendations in the recently released report from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group is the call to talk with Iran. A formal dialogue with the present Iranian leadership is, for a number of reasons, as misguided as it is amoral.
War-Making and the Machines of War
by Victor Davis Hanson Commentary Magazine (December 2006) In recent years, the term “revolution in military affairs” (RMA) has come to be applied to the vast change that computerized intelligence and globalization have brought to the conduct of war. This catchy sobriquet, however, is only a new name for something very old. In fact, radical transformations […]
Israel Did it!
When in doubt, shout about Israel. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online These are strange times. Perennially beleaguered Israel, for instance, was hit all summer long with rockets from Lebanon and Gaza, as the world watched and kept score in an absurd new game of proportionality:
Our Pearl Harbor
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services On Dec. 7, 1941 — 65 years ago this week — pilots from a Japanese carrier force bombed Pearl Harbor. They killed 2,403 Americans, most of them service personnel, while destroying much of the American fleet and air forces stationed in Hawaii.
Losing the Enlightenment
A civilization that has lost confidence in itself cannot confront Islamists. by Victor Davis Hanson WSJ Opinion Journal Our current crisis is not yet a catastrophe, but a real loss of confidence of the spirit. The hard-won effort of the Western Enlightenment of some 2,500 years that, along with Judeo-Christian benevolence, is the foundation of […]
Blood and Oil
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services With the gruesome killing of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, Vladimir Putin’s Russia stands accused of poisoning yet another critic.
Conquest and Concession
The fate of Hagia Sophia and the Aqsa Mosque by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers Previous to Pope Benedict XVI’s November 30th visit to the Hagia Sophia complex in Constantinople, Muslims and Turks expressed fear, apprehension, and rage.
War Stories
Two versions of what we should do next. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Five years after September 11, and three-and-a-half years after toppling Saddam Hussein, the U.S. is almost as angry at itself as it is at the enemy. Two quite antithetical views of the war on terror — and indeed, the entire […]
Tough Idealism
Remembering that Iraq represents new foreign policy. by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services “Our own successful three-week war, but their failed three-year peace.”
Twisted Proverb
Osama bin Laden’s “Peace to whoever follows guidance” by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers Whenever Osama bin Laden addresses the West he always prefaces his message with the simple statement, “Peace to whoever follows guidance.”
Will the West Stumble?
by Victor Davis Hanson Real Clear Politics What a stupid question. By any benchmark of economic prosperity, military power, and political stability, Western civilization — in the United States, Europe, and the former British Commonwealth — has never been stronger. Globalization has become a euphemism for Westernization, an apparent unstoppable juggernaut.
More Bark Than Bite?
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Will the Democrats’ new control of the House and Senate shake things up that much abroad? They certainly will have plenty of opportunities to alter the present American course of fighting terrorists, the war in Iraq and our overall foreign policy.
The Fighting over the Fighting
Let’s at least be clear about the implications. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online It looks as if Americans have pushed the rock of Iraq almost to the crest, only to let go, like Sisyphus, terrified that it will roll back; we hope only that we will not be crushed in its descent. While […]
Rethinking Illegal Immigration
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Now that the bitter election season is over, both parties will have to return to the explosive issue of illegal immigration.
The Sage and the Sword
Jihadists see West’s tragic flaw in blinkered tolerance by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The West’s condemnation of Israel’s accidental shelling of two Palestinian Arab houses that killed 18 people once more reveals the bizarre incoherence that addles our thinking.