Victor Davis Hanson // American Greatness
The world may be increasingly baffled by 2021 America, and its sudden scapegoating of “white supremacist” hobgoblins for problems it cannot or will not solve.
Roughly 400 Americans were shot over the past July 4 holiday weekend. About 150 of them were killed. The majority, both of the shooters and the victims, were inner-city, African-American males. The level of violence approaches the bad casualty days of the recent Afghan and Iraq wars.
Meanwhile, during the carnage, progressive black leaders, from Representatives Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) to Cori Bush (D-Mo.), blasted America’s foundational holiday and the country at large for its white supremacy and the current supposed lack of freedom for African Americans.
During 120 days of rioting, arson, and looting during the summer of 2020, the country suffered about $2 billion in property damage, roughly 25 deaths, and some 14,000 arrests.
Rioters burned down a Minneapolis police precinct. They set afire a federal courthouse in Portland. And they tried to incinerate the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church next to the White House. Downtown areas of Portland and Seattle were taken over by rioters, who occupied entire city blocks with impunity.
The excessive use of force and violence by the government, as exemplified by the 12 man SWAT team that raided Marilyn Hueper’s Inn in Homer, Alaska, using a bogus 38 page warrant that had nothing but the assertion by the FBI agent presenting the warrant that Hueper was the person in the crowd photographs, are a measure of the weakness and incompetence of our government agents. They are don’t know what to do, and they seek guidance from the autobiographies of military personnel who survived our adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. They presume that they can terrorize the citizenry into “respecting” them. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are cardboard cutouts of the Rangers and SEALs who they presume to mimic. This will not end well.
The July 12, 2021 Wall Street Journal has a review of the Schmidle-Montgomery US Navy Preparedness Report on p A 17. Succinctly, it ain’t! If Japan, So Korea, Viet Nam, the Phillipines, and ANZAC can’t get it together, real soon, Xi will take them all over by force majeur.
Pay attention: the “historical” China goes West to the Ural Mountains, SW to the Alps, North to the North Pole, South to the South Pole, and East to the Hawaiian Islands. Admiral Po explored the Hindi Coasts and most of East Africa, if Xi thinks he can make the claim.