by Victor Davis Hanson// National Review America’s culture of spontaneity, flexibility, and improvisation helped win the battle. Seventy-five years ago (June 4-7, 1942), the astonishing American victory at the Battle of Midway changed the course of the Pacific War. Just six months after the catastrophic Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. crushed the …
by Victor Davis Hanson// Defining Ideas As missiles fall on Syria in retaliation for Bashar Assad’s medieval use of chemical weapons—and as voices call for the use of some American ground troops to expedite his removal—we might reflect upon American military interventions in the post-Vietnam era. America’s major interventions include Iraq in 1991, the …
A new biography examines the many sides of the versatile American general. By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Of all the great American captains of World War II, none remains more controversial than General Douglas MacArthur, whose genius and folly have taken on mythic proportions. MacArthur alone among them fought in all of …
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Victor Davis Hanson // Tribune Media Services The United States has targeted a lot of rogues and their regimes in recent decades: Muammar Gadhafi, Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, Mohamed Farrah Aidid, Manuel Noriega and the Taliban. As a general rule over the last 100 years, any time the U.S. has bombed or intervened and then …
Public opinion veers with every change in current conditions in Iraq. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Probable Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush got himself into trouble by sort of, sort of not, answering the question whether he would have supported going into Iraq in 2003 — had he known then what we know …
The Left would rather forget its old slogan, “Bush lied, thousands died.” by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The very mention of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and Iraq was toxic for Republicans by 2005. They wanted to forget about the supposed absence of recently manufactured WMD in great quantities in Iraq; Democrats saw …
Blowing apart a problem for a while is different from ending it for good. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Wars usually end only when the defeated aggressor believes it would be futile to resume the conflict. Lasting peace follows if the loser is then forced to change its political system into something …
by Victor Davis Hanson // WND The Japanese did not see their attack on Pearl Harbor as foolish at all. What in retrospect seems suicidal did not necessarily seem so at the time. In hindsight, the wiser Japanese course would have been to absorb the orphaned colonial Far Eastern possessions of France, the Netherlands and …
Remembering the most brilliantly conducted invasion in military history by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online General Eisenhower speaks with paratroopers prior to the invasion. (Photo via Library of Congress) Seventy years ago this June 6, the Americans, British, and Canadians stormed the beaches of Normandy in the largest amphibious invasion of Europe since …
The executive branch continues to be plagued by scandal after scandal. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki cannot get a handle on the recent scandalous treatment of veterans in VA hospitals, where more than 40 sick men were allowed to die without proper follow-up treatment. A cover-up …