From the president on down, they are in resolute denial about radical Islam. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The military effort against the Islamic State hinges on a successful threefold approach involving intelligence, homeland security, and diplomacy. Unfortunately, the Obama administration does not have much past history in these areas to warrant […]
Potential allies against ISIS doubt America’s commitment to being engaged abroad. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online The so-called Islamic State has left destruction everywhere that it has gained ground. But as in the case of the tribal Scythians, Vandals, Huns, or Mongols of the past, sowing chaos in its wake does not
In his view, the current debacle has nothing to do with his own errors and omissions. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online How can we account for the apparent flip-flopping of the Obama administration about what we are doing, or might do further, to the Islamic State? At times the secretary of defense
by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine In 1902 Theodore Roosevelt intervened in a strike by Pennsylvania coal miners, exceeding his Constitutional authority as president. When this was pointed out to him by Republican House whip James E. Watson, Roosevelt allegedly yelled, “To hell with the Constitution when the people want coal!” This outburst reflected
It’s increasingly difficult to navigate the web of transitory enemies and allies in the region. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online Try figuring out the maze of enemies, allies, and neutrals in the Middle East. In 2012, the Obama administration was on the verge of bombing the forces of Syrian president Bashar Assad.
by Victor Davis Hanson // Defining Ideas Will the United States in its near future be hit again in the manner of the 9/11 attacks of thirteen years ago? The destruction of the World Trade Center, the suicide implosions of four passenger airliners, and the attack on the Pentagon unfortunately have become far-off memories. They are
“When force threatens, talk is no good.” by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine That line from John Ford’s classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance contains wisdom everyone from peasant to king knew before our modern age and its smug illusions. Go back 2,400 years, and you can hear it from the Athenian orator Demosthenes
Let us count the ways: bald lies, lies of omission, mythography, amnesia, redaction . . . by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online We can usefully view the Obama administration’s chronic untruthfulness as a sort of multifaceted corporation of untruth, with all sorts of subsidiaries. THE BALD LIES OF POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY Remember the al-Qaeda-is-on-the-run
To Obama, the retrenchment of the West was not only inevitable but to be welcomed. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online In just the last five or six years the world has been fundamentally transformed. Instead of the old accustomed Western-inspired postwar global order, crafted and ensured by the United States and its
For the president, belief in historical predetermination substitutes for action. by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online President Obama doesn’t know much about history. In his therapeutic 2009 Cairo speech, Obama outlined all sorts of Islamic intellectual and technological pedigrees, several of which were undeserved. He exaggerated Muslim contributions to printing and medicine, for