David Petraeus

Has Trump Nominated Too Many Military Leaders—Or Not Enough?

Leave a Comment / December 15, 2016

By Victor Davis Hanson// National Review Choosing military men for top cabinet spots is not unprecedented, nor is it foolish given how Washington insiders have performed. President-elect Donald Trump is being faulted for supposedly appointing too many retired generals to cabinet-level jobs and “militarizing” the government. Former lieutenant general Michael Flynn is slated to be …

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America In Free Fall

Leave a Comment / June 20, 2016

By Victor Davis Hanson // Defining Ideas Before the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), where Philip II of Macedon prevailed over a common Greek alliance, the city-states had been weakened by years of social and economic turmoil. To read the classical speeches in the Athenian assembly is to learn of the democracy’s constant struggles …

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A Short History of Amorous Generals

Leave a Comment / December 23, 2012

by Victor Davis Hanson Defining Ideas Many were as pursuant of women as they were of the enemy — and the former rarely impaired the latter. “You’re a very bad man.” So yelled Dorothy at the Wizard of Oz, once the imposing, larger-than-life face on the screen was revealed to be a mere projection of …

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Oh, We Forgot to Tell You . . .

November 26, 2012

by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The second-term curse goes like this: A president (e.g., Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, etc.) wins re-election, but then his presidency implodes over the next four years — mired in scandals or disasters such as Watergate, Iran-Contra, Monica Lewinsky, the Iraqi insurgency and Hurricane …

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Oh What a Tangled Web

Leave a Comment / November 21, 2012

by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Supporters of President Obama have dubbed those who question administration statements about Libya as either partisans or conspiracy theorists, on the premise that the administration had no reason to dissimulate. But in fact, it had plenty of political reasons not to be candid, as the following questions make …

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Down from Olympus

Leave a Comment / November 19, 2012

by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s The Corner David Petraeus’s resignation marks the end of one of the great postwar military and government careers — his successful surge in Iraq being analogous to and as impressive as Matthew Ridgway’s salvation of Korea or Sherman’s sudden taking of Atlanta that saved Lincoln’s and the Union cause before the …

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Too Many Narratives to Get Straight?

Leave a Comment / November 19, 2012

by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s The Corner At some point the prurient angle of the Petraeus story that alone enticed a reluctant media into becoming tangentially interested in Benghazi-gate — in the way the deaths of four Americans never did — will die down. Then we are left with largely three unanswered questions of far greater …

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A Tale of Two Surges

December 6, 2011

by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services From 2007 to 2009, a surge of 20,000 troops under the generalship of David Petraeus saved a mostly lost war in Iraq. Share This

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Memo to the General: Free Speech Doesn’t Kill People, Jihadists Kill People

April 10, 2011

by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society Citizen control of the military is one of the most important foundations of political freedom. Rather than an instrument of a powerful autocrat or king, the army in a republic serves the collective interests, security, and policies of the state as determined by the citizens through the …

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