Victor Davis HansonHistorian’s Corner C. Analysis. So why is the Left Saber-rattling? There are four choices, and they are not mutually exclusive: The Left knows that Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden serially appeased Putin. They privately accept that his invasion of Ukraine is a manifestation of their own efforts that weakened U.S. deterrence that […]
Victor Davis HansonHistorian’s Corner A. The Record of Leftwing Appeasement Consider the following. From 2009 until the recent present, the Left did the following: Appeased Vladimir Putin with “reset.” This included both the relevant laxity toward Russia—inviting Russia into the Middle East, bringing it into the Iran Nuclear Deal discussions, the Obama hot mic revelation,
Victor Davis Hanson Historian’s Corner Alternative View #4: Paleo Putin Wait a minute. Putin is a dictator, yes, but have we recently cut off all dictators? Xi? The Saudi royal family? Castro, Inc.? The ayatollahs? At least Putin does not desecrate Christianity. At least Russians do not make apologies for their own country. Who fought
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Victor Davis Hanson Historian’s Corner There are four schools of conservative thought in Ukraine. Alternative View #1: Realist Deterrence Putin is a thug—period. Putin violated global norms. Putin is getting thousands killed for some stupid irredentist dream of restoring a lost Russian Empire. So, he must be deterred. He must be stopped. He must be
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Victor Davis Hanson Historian’s Corner Have We Learned Anything from Ukraine? 6) We have a 79-year-old impaired president and a vice president who is cogent but scarier. The former was nominated by the Democrats’ late primary season terror of woke candidates, the latter was the woke payoff for Biden’s nomination. Both nonentities likely convince Putin
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Victor Davis Hanson Historian’s Corner Have We Learned Anything from Ukraine? We know why Putin invaded Ukraine: he wants to restore the borders of the old Soviet Union and with them the power and glory of a lost empire that had 100 million more people and nearly 30 percent more of the territory than Russia
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Victor Davis Hanson Historian’s Corner 1. We Have No Border An open border is destroying the United States. Just under two million illegal aliens crossed into the United States from the most impoverished areas in the world. They arrive in large part without English, capital, skills, high-school diplomas, background checks, vaccinations, or COVID-tests. They arrived
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Victor Davis HansonHistorian’s Corner Gas and Oil Think back 13 months ago. Gas and diesel fuel were about half the price they are now. America was de facto energy independent, which was psychologically reassuring to the American public. Domestically produced fuels invigorated the economy. Commuters saved collectively billions of dollars in annual fuel costs. There
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Victor Davis Hanson Deterrence Deterrence is the classical effort to scare somebody off from attacking you, or your interests—without a major conflict. It is hard to obtain and predicated on being predictable in reacting to aggression, while remaining unpredictable in the level of violence employed. Deterrence can be lost by ennui and becoming transparently passive,
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Victor Davis Hanson Historian’s Corner The 1619 idea was designed to provoke, not instruct, and, of course, make Ms. Jones “controversial.” 1619 would have vanished with easy refutation—except the New York Times sponsored the ruse. And the rest is history. The powers of relativism were invoked (e.g., “who is to say that one date is
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