Victor Davis Hanson // American Greatness
Stonewalling investigations into the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan? A hundred new hardened intercontinental nuclear missiles silos? Dressing down U.S. diplomats on purported American racism?
Braggadocio about nuking non-nuclear and once-nuked Japan, if need be? Winks and nods that Taiwan will soon be Hong-Kongized?
Hacking into Western institutions?
No apologies for lying about the origins, nature, and transmissibility of the gain-of-function, virology-lab-engineered Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 virus? Or rather, an attitude of maybe/maybe not the virus leaked from a military-related lab, “So what are you going to do about it—this time or next”?
Great essay, as always! But the very last sentence is an important caveat, sort of like releasing an unknotted balloon. Well, sure, America has every advantage (the ballon expands), & all we have to do is quit whining, pull on our big boy pants (big girl panties) & start acting like grownups. Whoosh!! (as the balloon spins off & crashes…) Don’t mistake me. I do think America is all that Dr. Hanson claims – or could be, if we didn’t insist on celebrating snowflakes, believing in unicorns, & dreaming up history to glorify complaints. We could be… we should be… all we have to do is grow up, & that seems a stretch for many in our great nation. Love VDH, though! Appreciate the knowledge & wisdom!
Dear Professor Hanson,
I wish I could fully share your optimism about the sound “fundamentals” of today’s America, which, in the event of serious conflict, would carry us to victory. But there is one crucial difference
between December 6, 1941 and now. Then, the United States was the predominant industrial power in the whole world, completely self-sufficient in every respect and able to provide ample help to its allies. Not any more. We have largely lost our industrial base. This loss was painfully exposed by the 2020 pandemic, when we quickly ran out of face masks, disinfectants and even toilet paper. But, in fact, this insufficiency goes much deeper, encompassing truly strategic items such as semiconductor chips. Look around a typical American home, and you will see that nearly nothing it contains is made in the USA: not furniture, not domestic electronics, not the appliances, not the clothes, not the textiles they are made of. For all these, we often depend on our adversaries or on those threatened by our adversaries. This, to my mind, is a very dangerous vulnerability, and we are nowhere near dressing it seriously.