Our domestic tensions embolden our enemies.
By Victor Davis Hanson//National Review Online
Here is a sampling of some recent news abroad:
A Russian guard attacked a U.S. diplomatic official at the door to the American Embassy in Moscow, even as NATO leaders met to galvanize against the next act of Russian aggression.
The Islamic State continued its global terrorist rampage with horrific attacks in Baghdad and Istanbul.
Iran rebuffed United Nations warnings and defiantly boasted that it will continue testing ballistic missiles. German intelligence believes that Iran, empowered by the release of $100 billion in impounded cash, is violating its recent American-led nonproliferation deal in an effort to import nuclear bomb-making technology.
North Korea conducted a test (unsuccessful, apparently) of a submarine-based guided missile.
There are various ways of interpreting these ominous events.
They could represent just more empty chest-thumping by our enemies.
Or, because this is an election year in the U.S., enemies are posturing in order to advance their agendas, as they often do in times of uncertainty about who will be the next president.
Or, Obama is perceived as an exceptionally lame lame-duck president who is hoping to wind down his tenure in passivity, without a major incident abroad that might imperil his presidential legacy.
Or, after the explosive rise of ISIS, the disaster in Benghazi, the failed reset with Russia, the unchecked Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, the concessions in the Iran deal, the veritable implosion of the Middle East, and the president’s counterproductive sermonizing about Brexit, enemies sense that the U.S. is directionless. These enemies may be unsure whether America still wishes to — or even can — exercise its traditional leadership of the free world and remain the custodian of the post-war international order.
But perhaps there is yet another catalyst prompting such events.
The United States appears to be entering another era of dangerous internal instability similar to the one it endured in the 1960s-1970s.
After the attacks by radical Islamists in San Bernardino and Orlando, Americans did not rally together as they had after 9/11. Instead, almost immediately, the country was torn further apart. About half the nation saw the terrorist killings as a reason for stricter gun control rather than a reason to fear the continuing spread of radical Islamic terrorism. The other half worried that political correctness and the president’s refusal to even mention radical Islamic terrorism are eroding the ability to deter it.
America’s enemies draw their own conclusions.
After the Orlando attack, al-Qaeda urged lone-wolf terrorists in the U.S. to focus exclusively on white targets. The organization’s leaders apparently worry that if terrorists again hit minority communities, it will prompt a bickering America to blame itself rather than give full credit to the attackers.
After the recent deaths of two black men in confrontations with police (in Minnesota and Louisiana), followed by national Black Lives Matter protests and the killing of five law-enforcement officers in Dallas, it might appear to our enemies abroad that the American superpower is internally unwinding into tribalism in the fashion of the Balkans, Iraq, or Lebanon.
As in the case of Islamic terrorism, America seems to have no answers to racial tensions. Half the country believes African Americans are inordinately targeted by police and that inner-city violence can be attributed to a long history of racism, national neglect, and economic stagnation. The other half blame disastrous social-welfare and big-government policies for creating dangerous dependencies and a dearth of jobs in America’s inner cities, as well as a popular culture that glorifies rather than discourages the excesses of many young black males.
One America believes that the Obama administration genuinely tried, but so far has failed, to resolve the tensions between inner-city residents and police. The other America thinks Obama sought to leverage those tensions for political reasons.
Either way, most of America privately thinks that Islamic terrorist acts and racial tensions are going to get far worse — a perception that is probably shared overseas as well.
Our enemies increasingly may gamble that provocations won’t elicit a U.S. reaction. Or that even if America did respond, the resulting domestic divisions and turmoil would diminish the effectiveness of the response.
Add to the equation record debt and vast cuts in the defense budget, and our enemies may conclude that we are Rome of AD 500, Britain of the late 1940s, or Russia of the 1980s.
To be blunt, America’s vulnerable post-war global order may already seem to those abroad to be bloated carrion ready to be picked apart by opportunistic vultures.
Discussion (10)
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The technology of WMD is available to any enterprising entity , Pakistan, Iran, North Korea and soon the States of the middle east, to counter Iran's soon to be developed Nuclear arm capability, they will not be stopped.
Hey could you get your friend hugh Hewitt straight on Gingrich over the top remarks about deporting sharia believers. He had a guest on his show and they discussed the constitutionality of the idea. It's not bogus when someone wants to overthrow a country and it's constitution. Which is exactly the aim of sharia. You can't give them religious protection if they intend to break the law or if the practice thereof is itself unconstitutional. Both cannot Co exist. It is unavoidable we are going to have to choose which one is right and which one is wrong. I don't think Hughe heard the way that came out.
I think a good subject for a future column would be a look into how our western civilization has followed the exact pattern of rise and decline as other civilizations throughout recorded history. The stage we are currently in is the fall. I believe people need to be made aware of this distinct pattern, and yes, it should scare them, as that would be the only way to take action in order to avoid the fall. We are one step away from falling off the cliff. Maybe if enough people realize this, that final step can be reversed or at least delayed.
As always, well said. I for one, believe our liberals have slowly created or at least exacerbated the issues in black america. The slogan should be Black Dads Matter and black Americans should be marching to pronounce that they understand the travesties of legislature that has broken their families, discouraged marriage, encouraged promiscuity and given Uncle Sam daddy status. It should be a peaceful protest, openly revealing the sham and calling for their communities to start afresh and their families to unite. Black Dads Matter just like All Dads Matter.
"The other half blame disastrous social-welfare and big-government policies for creating dangerous dependencies and a dearth of jobs in America’s inner cities, as well as a popular culture that glorifies rather than discourages the excesses of many young black males." Don't forget the inner city pre prisons know as public schools that cripple children for a future in a knowledge economy.
"bloated carrion ready to be picked apart by opportunistic vultures" - and yet prepared to be annoyingly assertive. Speak loudly but carry a little stick. Donald Trump seems to engender some respect. What effect a Hillary Clinton, seriously detached from reality and yet very aggressive, would have, i shudder to think.
Thank you for your article on "Will California Ever Thrive" it appeared in my Sunday newspaper (East Bay Times 7/8/16) under the headline "California has ample reason for pessimism" It was right on the money and has desperately been needed to be said. You could have added that the overburdened middle class commutes an hour to work (one way) on a soul crushing commute) that should only be 20-25 minutes maximum leaving cities were their new neighbors from Oakland/Richmond sleep late and collect their Section 8 voucher. I've been saying it for years, California is a great place to live--if you're rich. Lord help you if you're not Hope to read more from you in the future.
Answer to your last sentence. WE ARE. A rotting carcass.
You wrote " it might appear to our enemies abroad that the American superpower is internally unwinding into tribalism in the fashion of the Balkans, Iraq, or Lebanon." I would say to you that what you describe is merely how nations and nationalists act and it springs from basic human nature to do so. Nations are dominated by one group that makes up a strong majority of the population. Nations are inherently stable while deeply divided multicultural democracies such as the USA are always inherently unstable. Nations are naturally stable because a majority of the people mutually recognize each other as co-nationals. Multi-ethnic democracies never achieve true internal stability. Let's remember that the US multiculturist environment is a result of only a few decades once LBJ changed the immigration law in the USA in 1965. Before that we operated with the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 was meant to exclude certain immigrants from immigrating to America. The law focuses on denying immigrants who are unlawful, immoral, diseased in any way, politically radical etc. and accepting those who were willing and able to assimilate into the US economic, social, and political structures. Furthermore, the most notable exclusions were anyone even remotely associated with communism which in the early days of the Cold War was seen as a serious threat to US democracy. The main objective of this was to block any spread of communism from outside post WWII countries, as well as deny any enemies of the US during WWII such as Japan and favor “good Asian” countries such as China. LBJ forever changed that. For most of its history, the U.S. was a European-derived nation with a small “minority” population. Remember that as recently as 1970, the USA was 84 percent white, 11 percent black, and just 4 percent Hispanic. Although Mexican immigration (both legal and illegal) had been increasing since the end of the Bracero program in 1964, Mexican Americans were still less than 3 percent of the population, with many claiming U.S. ancestry stretching back to the Mexican-American war. It is only recently that the USA is getting an actual sense of what it means to be a multicultural democracy and it seems clear that the reality doesn’t meet the idealized and utopian theory for many Americans. I think you are incorrect when you say this appears to look like "internal instability similar to the one the USA endured in the 1960s-1970s". While I wasn't there I clearly think this appears to look a lot more like 1860.
"era of dangerous internal instability similar to the one it endured in the 1960s-1970s." Aw heck......we made it through that didn't we? We gave that moron Carter a chance and when that didn't work we elected Reagan. Things improved to say the least. We've given Obama a chance and of course it didn't work so we'll elect Trump and things will get better. Things work out in the end and if they haven't worked out then it isn't the end.