Syria in a Nutshell

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by Victor Davis Hanson // NRO’s The Corner 

We are contemplating going to war in Syria to help the opposition a lot and to hurt Assad some, or to help the opposition some and hurt Assad a lot, or to hurt Assad some and help the opposition some, or to force Assad to stop or to leave, or to stop but stay, or to stop and leave; or to restore the word of the president, or the word of the United States, or the word of the international community by bombing, or by threatening to bomb but not bombing, or by neither threatening to bomb nor bombing; or to warn the Russians to stay out, or to welcome the Russians to come in, or to warn the Russians to stay out and welcome the Russians to come in. Message? We are planning to do all kinds of things by not doing anything. Continue reading “Syria in a Nutshell” →

Populism Lives at NRO

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We depend on thousands of small contributors.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online 

National Review Online imposes no litmus test on its contributors. The result each day — to take the most recent hot-button issue — is that columnists both support and oppose the proposed Syrian intervention, though usually from a shared conservative perspective.

NRO provides a platform for a wide variety of traditional Republican, libertarian, centrist conservative, neo-con, and paleo-con views; the common denominator is a shared belief that the individual Continue reading “Populism Lives at NRO” →

Muslim Persecution of Christians: June, 2013

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by Raymond Ibrahim // Gatestone Institute 

The degradation of Christian women living in the Islamic world continued in the month of June.  In Syria, after the al-Qaeda linked rebel group conquered Qusair, a city of the governate of Homs, 15-year-old Mariam was kidnapped, repeatedly gang raped according to a fatwa legitimizing the rape of non-Sunni women by any Muslim waging jihad against Syria’s government, and then executed. Continue reading “Muslim Persecution of Christians: June, 2013” →

Watching the Middle East Implode

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Only when we recognize the fundamental role Islam plays in the region can we begin to craft sensible policies that put U.S. interests first.

by Bruce S. Thornton // Defining Ideas 

The revolutions against dictators in the Middle East dubbed the Arab Spring have degenerated into a complex, bloody mélange of coups and counter-coups, as have happened in Egypt; vicious civil wars, like the current conflict in Syria; a resurgence of jihadists gaining footholds in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Sinai; and a shifting and fracturing of alliances and enmities of the sort throwing Lebanon and Jordan into turmoil. Meanwhile, American foreign policy has been confused, incompetent, and feckless in insuring that the security and interests of the United States and its allies are protected. Continue reading “Watching the Middle East Implode” →

Fifteen Minutes of Foreign Policy Malfeasance

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by Bruce S. Thornton // FrontPage Magazine 

On the eve of the 12thanniversary of the terrorist strikes on 9/11, President Obama last night addressed the nation and reprised every delusional and bankrupt internationalist idea that contributed to that disaster. The current Syrian crisis––merely the latest Middle Eastern example of Obama’s incompetence––exemplifies more thoroughly than the rest just how politicized, incoherent, hypocritical, and dangerous to this country’s security and interests Obama’s foreign policy has been. Continue reading “Fifteen Minutes of Foreign Policy Malfeasance” →

Putin — Saruman Come Alive

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by Victor Davis Hanson // NRO’s The Corner

“It was a delight to hear the voice speaking, all that it said seemed wise and reasonable, and desire woke in them by swift agreement to seem wise themselves.”

— J. R. R. Tolkien, The Two Towers.

If it were regrettable that Vladimir Putin’s formidable diplomatic skills were wasted squashing rather than ensuring freedom inside Russia, it seems even more lamentable that his impressive prose likewise is not put to better use. Putin’s letter to us, the American people, is brilliant sophistry. The best rhetoric is always that which blends truth with half-truth and occasional fiction. In Putin’s case, he did all that—while offering the dessert of channeling Obama back to Obama.

Of course, as Putin reminds us, we fought together in WWII and should agree that such cooperation should be emulated. Russia suffered enormous losses for the Allied cause. Without such heroic sacrifices, the Anglo-American alliance may well have lost the war.

Yet Putin forgets to remind us that Russia’s war with Germany was prompted by betrayal. Russia was a de facto ally of Hitler. It kept sending him enormous amounts of material to help defeat France and Continue reading “Putin — Saruman Come Alive” →

The Myth of a California Renaissance

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Sacramento’s strategy for recovery is more taxes, more regulation, and more government.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online 

Are the recent raves about a new California renaissance true?

SF_From_Marin_Highlands3Rolling Stone magazine just gushed that California governor Jerry Brown has brought the state back from the brink of “double-digit unemployment, a $26 billion deficit and an accumulated ‘wall of debt’ topping $35 billion.”

Unfortunately, California still faces existential crises. Continue reading “The Myth of a California Renaissance” →

Victor Davis Hanson on the John Batchelor Show

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Wednesday  11 September  2013/ Hour 3, Block A:  Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover, in re: Syria. This president is not yet mature enough from experience to handle the complexities  surrounding Syria; he’s not up to it. Putin in today’s NYT op-ed as a wise and experienced world leader. Six weeks from now, US Arleigh Burke destroyers still in Med: “If he’s wise, Pres Obama will back out of the saloon and hope no one’ll shoot him.” Continue reading “Victor Davis Hanson on the John Batchelor Show” →

On 9/11 — A Look Back, a Look Forward

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The as now, the Arab world’s self-induced pathologies cannot be cured by American self-doubt.

by Victor Davis Hanson // National Review Online

September 11, 2001, was not just a tragedy, but rather a willful act of war by radical Islamists who hate Western civilization and the American version of it in particular. They achieved, by their cunning and our laxity, a horrendous loss of 800px-Wtc-2004-memorialAmerican life. Indeed, they did something that no enemy had succeeded at since the War of 1812: bringing the war home to the U.S. and inflicting human, material, and economic damage on a colossal scale.

They were emboldened by our prior inability to respond to provocations. A 20-year cycle of Islamist-inspired violence from Tehran to Lebanon to the 1993 World Trade Center attack to the USS Cole in Continue reading “On 9/11 — A Look Back, a Look Forward” →