by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media After six years, it is no surprise that the Obama administration does not see the Taliban as “terrorists” or that it will not associate “violent extremism” with radical Islam or just Islam. After all, when Maj. Hasan murdered U.S. soldiers it was nothing more than “workplace violence,” as …
Traditional pillars of the tiny democracy’s security have begun to erode. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East and North Africa. Eight million Israelis are surrounded by some 400 million Muslims in more than 20 states. Almost all of Israel’s neighbors are anti-Israeli dictatorships, …
False moral equivalence and blatant cowardice threaten our tradition of free expression. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Western civilization’s creed is free thought and expression, the lubricant of everything from democracy to human rights. Even a simpleton in the West accepts that protecting free expression is not the easy task of ensuring …
by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine Commentators on both the left and the right are slamming President Obama for missing the march in Paris last Sunday. Even a stalwart courtier like CNN’s Jake Tapper sniffed that he was “ashamed” that the U.S. was represented by an ambassador––one, by the way, who got her appointment …
For Western elites, Ahmadinejad is preferable to Hirsi Ali, the Castros to Cuban dissidents. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online For a number of years into the Cold War, American presidents were occasionally troubled by the paradox that a democratic United States was supporting right-wing anti-Communist dictatorships abroad. Either Harry Truman, John Kennedy, …
Try to imagine Franklin Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan caving in to North Korea. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Aristotle thought courage the preeminent virtue. Without it, there could be no morality. Virtue becomes a mere abstraction, a high-sounding platitude that is easy to live by in one’s sleep. The present generation may …
by Victor Davis Hanson // PJ Media Before World War II appeasement was a good word, reflecting a supposedly wise policy of understanding an enemy’s predicaments. Sober Western democracies would grant tolerable concessions to aggressive dictators in Germany, Italy, and Japan to satiate their appetites for more. With such magnanimity everyone would avoid a nightmare …
Democrats are hypocritically silent about Obama’s policy of targeted assassinations. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online There are lots of hypocrisies surrounding the recently released executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. But they pale in comparison to the current Democratic silence about President Barack …
by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine Torture is one of those topics that often overwhelm sober reason with lurid emotion. Even people who usually are clear-eyed and rational sink into sloppy thinking and incoherent argument when it comes to torture. Peggy Noonan’s recentWall Street Journal column about the Senate report on the CIA’s interrogation …