Mexico’s Sick Economy
Relying on oil and illegal workers’ wages leads to long-term disaster. by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Economists have long pointed out that relying on oil as a natural resource can be a long-term disaster for a developing nation.
Sword Without Leniency
The West must scuttle arrogant materialism and take jihadists at their word by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers In 636 A.D., the caliph Umar gave these instructions to the commander he sent to Basra during the conquest of Iraq: “Summon the people to God; those who respond to your call, accept if from them, but […]
In the Eye of the Beholder
Imagine if we’d reported and opined on WWII the way we do now. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online I think Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Henry Stimson, and George Marshall conducted the Second World War brilliantly, despite “thousands of mistakes.” But I can also envision how our present intelligentsia and punditocracy would have sized up […]
The Prison of the Present
by Victor Davis Hanson Real Clear Politics Listen to the present televised hysteria. Too few troops! No, too many still there! The CIA is out of control! No, it is weak and irrelevant! The Iraq mess only empowered Iran! No, its democratic experiment is the best way to undermine that neighboring theocracy.
Give Iran Some Rope
What is to be done about a nuclear Iran? by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The debate in the U.S. over how to contend with Iran as it pursues nuclear weapons goes like this:
For Better or Worse?
Is the U.S. better off with the Middle East as it is now than as it was before 2001? by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online After September 11, there were only seven sovereign countries in the Middle East that posed a real danger to the policies and, in some cases, the security of the […]
Immigration Checkmate
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The thousands of illegal aliens protesting this past month have essentially been telling the American people the following:
Passions: A Primordial Landscape
Comment on Colin S. Gray’s military history arguments for the Historical Society by Victor Davis Hanson Historically Speaking As a long admirer of Thucydides I must plead guilty to agreeing with almost all of the sensible points that Colin S. Gray has made.
Our Orphaned Middle East Policy
Things are looking up as everyone starts jumping ship. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online It is common now to hear of an American Middle East policy in shambles. And why not, given the daily mayhem that is televised from the West Bank, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and the overt threats of Iranian President Ahmadinej(ih)ad?
The Caldron of Anti-Semitism
The use and abuse of popular culture’s favorite victim. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers As if there isn’t enough evidence of the ideological corruption of America’s universities, along come Chicago’s John Mearsheimer and Harvard’s Stephen Walt, arguing that the “Israel lobby” dominates American foreign policy to the hurt of our own national interests.
Libya Awake Again
Economy’s revitalization shows patterns ancient and modern by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The most vibrant cities of the Roman Empire were often not found in Europe. Many were located along the southern and eastern Mediterranean and Aegean, such as Leptis Magna, Ephesus and Pergamum.
France’s Immigrant Problem–and Ours
by Victor Davis Hanson Claremont Review of Books [This piece appeared in the Spring 2006 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.] The three weeks of Muslim rage across France during autumn 2005 brought Schadenfreude to many Americans.
How to Eliminate Iran’s Nuclear Weapons
by Victor Davis Hanson Claremont Review of Books [This piece appeared in the Spring 2006 issue of the Claremont Review of Books.]
Illegal Immigration and the English Language
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services In the fierce debate over illegal immigration, the particular terms used by those who argue our porous borders are not a serious problem can tell us a lot.
The Jackal and the General
Public discontent serves the man at home not the soldier in the field. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers Like jackals sniffing a wounded antelope, a pack of retired generals are circling Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, calling for him to resign for bungling the war in Iraq by allegedly interfering in military matters and ignoring […]
Dead-end Debates
Critics need to move on. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Currently, there are many retired generals appearing in frenetic fashion on television. Sometimes they hype their recent books, or, as during the three-week war, offer sharp interviews about our supposed strategic and operational blunders in Iraq — imperial hubris, too few troops, wrong […]
Back to the ’60s Barricades
by Victor Davis Hanson The American Enterprise Magazine On matters of national security, Democrats are back on their 1960s barricades. For them, the chief dangers to the United States lie not abroad but at home, within our own government — specifically unaccountable law enforcement, military, and national security establishments.
Eye of the Beholder
by Victor Davis Hanson The American Enterprise Online War-torn Iraq has about 26 million residents, a peaceful California perhaps now 35 million. The former is a violent and impoverished landscape, the latter said to be paradise on Earth. But how you envision either place to some degree depends on the eye of the beholder and […]
The Congresswoman and the Admiral
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Georgia Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s recent run-in with a security official at the nation’s Capitol reminded me of an earlier dust-up.
Collapse of a “Hyperpower”
A review of The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians by Peter Heather and The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization by Bryan Ward-Perkins. by Victor Davis Hanson The New Criterion After September 11 and the acrimonious war in Iraq, America was castigated as the world’s sole “empire,” “hegemon,” or […]