by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n
W<\/span>hen Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman pulled up to Savannah, Ga., after his legendary March to the Sea in December 1864, he was savagely slandered in the Southern press as a renegade leader of a “vandal horde.”<\/p>\n But at that same time, leading Confederate officers privately appealed to him, hoping he would guarantee the safety of the relatives they had left behind in Savannah. Why, Sherman wondered, would his sworn enemies trust that such an enemy might be kind to their loved ones \u2014 unless they knew that their own slurs about him were mere rhetoric?<\/p>\n That same sort of pretense is evident in the Middle East, where the leaders of countries and organizations hostile to or critical of the United States often trust us far more than they let on.<\/p>\n Nabih Berri, the Lebanese Amal militia chief who is now allied with both the anti-American Hezbollah and Syria, has much of his family residing in Dearborn, Mich.<\/p>\n Amr Salem, until recently a cabinet minister in Bashar Assad’s anti-American government in Syria, was a senior program manager at Microsoft. His family still lives in the U.S.<\/p>\n Bilal Musharraf, son of Pakistan strongman Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has been a Boston-based consultant and a Stanford business and education student. Meanwhile, his father’s government is either unwilling or unable to arrest on his soil the remnants of al-Qaeda, among them, most likely, Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.<\/p>\n Prince Bandar bin Sultan, former Saudi ambassador to the United States and high cabinet official in a monarchy that funds much of the world’s radical Islamist madrassas, is selling his 56,000-square-foot mansion in tony Aspen. The asking price is $135 million \u2014 the most expensive home ever put up for sale in the United States.<\/p>\n W<\/span>hat are we to make of these incongruities\u00a0and others like them?<\/p>\n First is the obvious hypocrisy. Allying with radical Shiites in Lebanon, anti-American Syrians or Islamists in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia does not seem to disqualify Middle Eastern politicos from appreciating the freedom, security and opportunity of the United States.<\/p>\n For all the talk of America’s faults, no Middle Easterner worries about vengeful Americans kidnapping or car-bombing his relatives. And few seem to consider that if the worldview of a present-day Lebanese militia or Saudi Arabia ever sweeps the globe, there would be no Dearborn or Aspen for their kin to find sanctuary.<\/p>\n Second, the wide gap between what many in the Middle East say and do should be a reminder that much anti-Americanism is poorly thought out or mostly for show. Many who decry America to the press and cameras privately prefer to send their loved ones here to take advantage of our success brought about by secular education, gender equality, meritocratic democracy and the primacy of law.<\/p>\n Third, the families of leaders of autocratic nations often hostile to the United States are kept safe and sound in this country precisely because of our openness and respect for guests and foreigners. Unlike most of the Middle East, where it is nearly impossible for Christians, single women or homosexuals to live openly and freely, Americans are a tolerant people who are not captive to tribal, religious or sectarian vengeance.<\/p>\n Americans may also think that these personal ties of Middle East authoritarians to the United States will lead to either liberalization back home or at least more favorable impressions of us there. Sadly, that hasn’t happened. In the case of Syria’s Amr Salem, his tenure at Bill Gates’ Microsoft seems to have made him only a more perfect minister of computer surveillance.<\/p>\n Indeed, sometimes exposure to American culture creates feelings of ambiguity \u2014 a sense of guilt among conservative arrivals at their newfound liberal appetites. In other cases, the perception arises that someone or something must have prevented the Middle East from enjoying what Americans take for granted.<\/p>\n The United States probably will not \u2014 and probably should not \u2014 deny entry to the families of Lebanese militia leaders, Pakistani dictators, Saudi sheiks or Syrian high officials. But we should at least point out to them, as Gen. Sherman once did to his grandstanding detractors, that there is certainly a reason why Bandar, Berri, Musharraf and Salem want their children over here \u2014 and apparently as far away as possible from the countries where they themselves are in charge.<\/p>\n \u00a92007 Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services When Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman pulled up to Savannah, Ga., after his legendary March to the Sea in December 1864, he was savagely slandered in the Southern press as a renegade leader of a “vandal horde.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[762],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-XL","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7793,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/sherman-in-gaza\/","url_meta":{"origin":3705,"position":0},"title":"Sherman in Gaza","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"His march through Georgia has been gravely misunderstood \u2015 as has Israel\u2019s strategy in Gaza. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online William Tecumseh Sherman 150 years ago took Atlanta before heading out on his infamous\u00a0March to the Sea\u00a0to make Georgia \u201chowl.\u201d He remains one of the most controversial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The IDF's 401st Armored Brigade in action near Gaza. (IDF via Flickr)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/pic_giant_082014_SM_IDF_Merkava-500x292.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5133,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/shermans-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":3705,"position":1},"title":"Sherman’s War","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 9, 1999","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson American Heritage The General's March through Georgia is usually remembered as a ruthless campaign of indiscriminate terror, waged against helpless civilians rather than southern soldiers. But Victor Davis Hanson argues that it was brillant, effective, and, above all, humble. By the fall of 1846 no army\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "1999"","block_context":{"text":"1999","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/1999\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7734,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/sherman-at-150\/","url_meta":{"origin":3705,"position":2},"title":"Sherman at 150","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Ricochet One hundred and fifty years ago this September 2, William Tecumseh Sherman took Atlanta after a brilliant campaign through the woods of northern Georgia. While Grant slogged it out against Lee in northern Virginia all through the late spring and summer of 1864\u2014the names\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Retrospective"","block_context":{"text":"Retrospective","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/retrospective\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Sherman1-300x330.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4714,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-class-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":3705,"position":3},"title":"A Class War","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 21, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers General William Tecumseh Sherman--a quirky, difficult, and much misunderstood man--deserves a place on the roll call of great liberators in human history. More than any other person, he destroyed the institution of American slavery and the Southern aristocracy that was interwoven with it. In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "May 2004"","block_context":{"text":"May 2004","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2004\/may-2004\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10310,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trump-and-his-generals\/","url_meta":{"origin":3705,"position":4},"title":"Trump and His Generals","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson National Review Trump\u2019s reliance on his generals shows that he values merit over politics. Donald Trump earned respect from the Washington establishment for appointing three of the nation\u2019s most accomplished generals to direct his national-security policy: James Mattis (secretary of defense), H. R. McMaster (national-security adviser),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "McMaster"","block_context":{"text":"McMaster","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/mcmaster\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3694,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/give-petraeus-a-chance\/","url_meta":{"origin":3705,"position":5},"title":"Give Petraeus a Chance","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"How about a moratorium on 2008 politics for a bit? by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The haggling over various resolutions and nit-picking (inasmuch as no one is seriously going to cut off funding) the surge is surreal. Whatever critics think of its rationale, it is clear that something\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "February 2007"","block_context":{"text":"February 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/february-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3706,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3705\/revisions\/3706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}