No More Anonymous, Please!
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The New Republic magazine recently ran into big trouble for publishing a first-person account of military savagery in Iraq. The author, Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp, used the pseudonym “Scott Thomas” to write of the debasement of war that he claims he saw in the cauldron of Iraq.
The Burdens of General Petraeus
No simple mission. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online I. Our Rules / Their Rules Several governments have defeated Islamic insurgencies, but usually only after about ten years, and adopting policies of summary executions and carpet bombing or shelling.
American Culture: The Truth About 40 Years in the Movies
by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers As New York Times critic A.O. Scott wrote recently, forty years ago this summer the movie that changed the movies premiered.
The Dangers of Education
by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s The Corner Presidential aspirant Mike Gravel recently opined on the advantages of having gays in the military: “…the Spartans trained their people to be homosexuals because they were better fighters.”
Anglo-American Alliance?
“The British have basically been defeated in the South.” by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s The Corner We’ve come a long way from the 2003 British lectures about American obtrusive Ray-Bans and Kevlar losing what British soft hats and smiles had won.
Surging Politics
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Critics of the U.S. troop “surge” in Iraq, called for by President George Bush in January, early on cited American losses and then announced the plan’s failure. Supporters, on the other hand, have seen progress from new tactics (which, many argue, should have been adopted far earlier).
Post-Surge Dialectics
by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s The Corner The larger question that will await General Petraeus is not just the tempo of the surge per se — after all, given the efficacy of the U.S. military it can pretty much do what it wishes if it is willing to invest sufficient amounts of time, material, and manpower, […]
Flying Imams: John Doe Provision in Perspective
by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers As a 6’3”, 250-pound weightlifter of Middle Eastern descent, who sometimes wears a full beard, seldom wears a (perfunctory) smile, and who’s last name is “Ibrahim” — a name that sometimes appears in rather “unflattering” headlines, such as the recent attacks in Glasgow — I don’t mind telling you that, […]
Get a Life, Middle East
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Radical Islamists love to scream about the “decadent” West. Everything from our operas to our attitudes about women outrage these loud pious critics.
Popularity Contest
Why they hate us, and like, us. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The latest Pew poll of June 2007 purports to offer a comprehensive survey of what the world thinks of the United States.
Armies for Democracy–Past, Present, and Future
Has a grand tradition of “military liberalism” come to a dead end in Iraq? by Victor Davis Hanson American Spectator I. Distrusting the Military The complex and somewhat ill-defined relationship between the military establishment and constitutional government is a subject that has made many Americans uncomfortable, especially in the modern era when the United States […]
Back to the Future in the Middle East
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services If Gen. David Petraeus can’t stabilize Iraq by autumn — or if Americans decide to pull out of Iraq before he gets a fair chance — expect far worse chaos eventually to follow.
Introduction to E.B. Sledge’s ‘With the Old Breed’
by Victor Davis Hanson VDH was asked to do an introduction for a new edition of E.B. Sledge’s With the Old Breed, a memoir from the Pacific theater of World War II.
All’s Fair in Love and Talk Radio
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., caused a stir recently when she criticized talk radio for its role in stopping the recent immigration bill. Talk radio, she lectured, “pushes people to . . . extreme views without a lot of information.”
Ripples of Retreat
Dark predictions for a post-withdraw world. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The present Washington parlor game is to argue over the consequences of a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq.
The New York Times Surrenders
A monument to defeatism on the editorial page by Victor Davis Hanson City Journal Online On July 8, the New York Times ran an historic editorial entitled “The Road Home,” demanding an immediate American withdrawal from Iraq. It is rare that an editorial gets almost everything wrong, but “The Road Home” pulls it off. Consider, point by […]
Upside-down Politics in the Middle East
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Jimmy Carter — a self-proclaimed champion of human rights and nonviolence — has called the U.S.’s unwillingness to accept the 2006 Palestinian election of the terrorists of Hamas “criminal.”
The Real Threat to Civil Liberties
by Victor Davis Hanson Real Clear Politics A common liberal complaint against the Bush administration is its supposed trampling of civil liberties. The Patriot Act, wiretaps, and Guantanamo supposedly have undermined our freedoms — or so we are warned ad nauseam by liberal watchdogs.
By the Sword: Ibrahim and Spencer Unveil the Truth of Islam
by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The New York Times’s Thomas Friedman is right on the mark most of the time in his analysis of the dysfunctions troubling the Muslim world and of our own failures in confronting them.
The Revolt on Illegal Immigration
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services After the utter collapse in the Senate last week of a comprehensive immigration bill, Washington insiders are blaming everyone and everything.