In this weekend episode, Victor Davis Hanson and cohost Sami Winc discuss lawfare in Washington, DC, the Islamic wars of expansion, and Biden’s diplomacy disaster.
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In this weekend episode, Victor Davis Hanson and cohost Sami Winc discuss lawfare in Washington, DC, the Islamic wars of expansion, and Biden’s diplomacy disaster.
Por Sasanians, they always get left out. However, nice updated section on Byzantium! Thanks for including globalism and economic history! I love this series!
Interesting bit at the end. It seems Churchill and the Melians were wrong in the short run and right in the long run: Poland and Ukraine have been poison pills for the Russian empire!
Love the shows. Can Jack and Sami try to not talk over Victor? The two of you allow your comments or questions to linger. Be Bright; Be Brilliant & Be Gone.
Stay healthy & safe
Victor and Sami,
Thank you for discussing the article from this week “The Biden 10-step plan for global chaos”. It’s an excellent summary of the top disastrous policies propagated by this administration. These plans will cause such destruction to our country that it may take years, if not several generations, to reverse and rebuild. You brought up the subject of people illegally dumping trash on your property. It’s hard to fathom what causes someone to have such disregard for another. When one has no vested interest in helping their fellow citizens and being part of a community, then it’s each one for themselves. When society completely breaks down, God help us as we will have such lawlessness as never before witnessed. I enjoy your weekend history lessons and look forward to them.
P.s. I have a hard time believing that such a cosmopolitan personage as Sanna (oops! *cough* … I mean Sami) knows nothing about video games…
I hear you on your podcasts and on Mark Levin. I love hearing your expertise on America. I wish we could help Ca! I’ve lived the majority here. Now I can hardly recognize this state. It’s a sad commentary.
All good stuff. To add a few points:
* If you credit Charles “The Hammer” Martel for stopping the Islamic expansion in the West, you might also give some credit to Jan Sobieski for stopping it in the East. If not for the “winged Hussars,” Vienna would have crescents on the top of govt. buildings rather than inside the pastry shops.
* The early part of the Islamic expansion was greatly abetted by its comparative tolerance of other sects. Early Islam contrasts with the Sassanians who persecuted their minorities, and the Byzantines, who persecuted theirs–the Jews, Nestorians, Copts, and other monophysite Christians. In many cases, those groups welcomed or even assisted the Islamic conquerors. Islam was very ecumenical in its first century, counting the other major faiths as fellow “believers.” There were even Christian divisions in Islamic armies, flying Christian banners. Confessional distinctions and dhimmi status didn’t come into play until the 2nd Islamic century.
* As it competed with the “West” in the early modern era, Islam was constrained by a reluctance to explore intellectually. Though it did advance science and math in the middle ages, there was always an anti-intellectual undercurrent: “if a book contains something that is not in the Qur’an it is blasphemy; if it contains something that is in the Qur’an, it’s redundant.” Either way, you have no use for books — or any other kind of knowledge for that matter.
keep up the good work, Jens Heycke
Nice, Jens! But don’t forget that the Sassanians tolerated Jews and Nestorians for historical reasons and to spite the Byzantines. I only offer this little bit in a burst of scholarly exuberance at the thoroughness of your comment!
Your comments are impressive.
Another great episode! I love the history lessons and I only wish Victor would go into him more detail. I learned so much. I especially like it when VDH ties in something that happened hundreds if not thousands of years ago with something that is happening today. ☺️
SIMPLY BRILLIANT, VICTOR–ONE OF YOUR BEST PODCASTS…
For months, I remember Victor kept asking if the conservatives are going to be old testament or new testament when they gain power.
He advocated for the old testament to restore deterrence. But now he is saying tic for tac will lead to the collapse of the republic. When they were fighting for the speakership, he was annoyed that it took a whole week. He wanted the hearing to start immediately.
Jeff Session and Bill Barr were disappointments. They delegated their power to others. Why did they accept the job if they can’t perform their duty? Useless chumps.
Victor, you have a mastery of history, but when it comes to current events, and affecting changes, your analysis falls short. The stars and sun will never quite line up. I would fire you if you are my adviser, honestly.
Catching up on my listening, and with 30 years soldiering at the tip of the bayonet, I am a rapt listener to anyone expanding my knowledge of military history beyond that of military history of the last century and this one.
One thing you mentioned as background to another point was “we saved Europe twice”. That surprised me as it sounds to me like the claims that Afghanistan is “the graveyard of Empires” – other than the empires that stayed for centuries or left of their own volition as they had no further interest in Afghanistan.
From my knowledge of the two world wars in the last century (skipping an argument over whether we saved the world from Hitler with our late entry (again) or saved Europe from Stalin), I am not sure where the basis is for claiming that we saved Europe in WWI.
Between the US’s first battle of Cantigny in the last days of May 1918 to the Armistice in November 1918 is a mere 22 weeks of a war that lasted beginning to end over four years. Material support after the declaration of war a year earlier is also part of the balance, of course. And while Britain and France were both bled white at that first US battle at Cantigny, the Germans were in even worse shape. They were also dealing with the Russians on the other side – and the self inflicted wound of the spread of communism among Germans after their decision to take Lenin and inject him into Russia as a destabilizing agent.
This is off the podcast topic, but it is a claim I find curious.