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Victor Davis Hanson Nec vitia nostra nec remedia pati possumus. “We can endure neither our vices nor the remedies for them.” Livy There are unfortunately other barometers of U.S. ossification. America’s great strength was also its security. We were protected by two oceans and a similar English-majority speaking and constitutional state on our northern border.

Victor Davis Hanson And on the pedestal these words appear: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away. Percy Shelley, “Ozymandias” I say America is in serious

Victor Davis Hanson Far-called, our navies melt away; On dune and headland sinks the fire: Lo, all our pomp of yesterday Is one with Nineveh and Tyre! Judge of the Nations, spare us yet, Lest we forget—lest we forget! Rudyard Kipling, “Recessional” There is proverbially a lot of rot in any great nation, which accordingly

Victor Davis Hanson We are the most powerful country in civilization’s history but not invulnerable. Even America will finally bleed out if we continue to open our own veins. Was it $40, $50, or $60 billion in equipment, weapons, supplies, and infrastructure that the U.S. simply abandoned in Afghanistan? That was that—no problem? We had

Victor Davis Hanson Yet at that ancient time of such misery, I remember then thinking of the pep talk of Aeneas who tried to lift the spirits of his defeated Trojans, scattered by storm and defeat. I had just read Book 2 the prior week—Aeneid Book 2, Line 203—when the hero riles up his exhausted

Victor Davis Hanson One baleful symptom of approaching 70 is spending more time thinking of the past than of the future—supposedly a tic that is incompatible with healthy aging and longevity. In fact, such retreats into the past are dangerous: siren-like they lure you away from the present conundrum and suck you into the past