by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n W<\/span>hen I used to read about the 1930s \u2014 the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain, and Germany, the appeasement in France and Britain, the murderous duplicity of the Soviet Union, and the racist Japanese murdering in China \u2014 I never could quite figure out why, during those bleak years, Western Europeans and those in the United States did not speak out and condemn the growing madness, if only to defend the millennia-long promise of Western liberalism.<\/p>\n Of course, the trauma of the Great War was all too fresh, and the utopian hopes for the\u00a0League of Nations\u00a0were not yet dashed. The Great Depression made the thought of rearmament seem absurd. The connivances of Stalin with Hitler \u2014 both satanic, yet sometimes in alliance, sometimes not \u2014 could confuse political judgments.<\/p>\n But nevertheless it is still surreal to reread the fantasies of Chamberlain, Daladier, and Pope Pius, or the stump speeches by Charles Lindbergh (\u201cTheir [the Jews\u2019] greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government\u201d) or Father Coughlin (\u201cMany people are beginning to wonder whom they should fear most \u2014 the Roosevelt-Churchill combination or the Hitler-Mussolini combination.\u201d) \u2014 and it is even more baffling to consider that such men ever had any influence.<\/p>\n Not any longer.<\/p>\n Our present generation too is on the brink of moral insanity. That has never been more evident than in the last three weeks, as the West has proven utterly unable to distinguish between an attacked democracy that seeks to strike back at terrorist combatants, and terrorist aggressors who seek to kill civilians.<\/p>\n It is now nearly five years since jihadists from the Arab world left a crater inManhattan\u00a0and ignited the Pentagon. Apart from the frontline in\u00a0Iraq\u00a0, theUnited States\u00a0and NATO have troops battling the Islamic fascists inAfghanistan\u00a0. European police scramble daily to avoid another\u00a0London\u00a0orMadrid\u00a0train bombing. The French, Dutch, and Danish governments are worried that a sizable number of Muslim immigrants inside their countries are not assimilating, and, more worrisome, are starting to demand that their hosts alter their liberal values to accommodate radical Islam. It is apparently not safe for Australians in Bali, and a Jew alone in any Arab nation would have to be discreet \u2014 and perhaps now in\u00a0France\u00a0or\u00a0Sweden\u00a0as well. Canadians\u2019 past opposition to the\u00a0Iraq\u00a0war, and their empathy for the Palestinians, earned no reprieve, if we can believe that Islamists were caught plotting to behead their prime minister. Russians have been blown up by Muslim Chechnyans fromMoscow\u00a0to Beslan.\u00a0India\u00a0is routinely attacked by Islamic terrorists. An elected Lebanese minister must keep in mind that a Hezbollah or Syrian terrorist \u2014 not an Israeli bomb \u2014 might kill him if he utters a wrong word. The only mystery here in the\u00a0United States\u00a0is which target the jihadists want to destroy first: the Holland Tunnel in\u00a0New York\u00a0or the\u00a0Sears\u00a0Tower\u00a0in\u00a0Chicago\u00a0.<\/p>\n In nearly all these cases there is a certain sameness: The Koran is quoted as the moral authority of the perpetrators; terrorism is the preferred method of violence; Jews are usually blamed; dozens of rambling complaints are aired, and killers are often considered stateless, at least in the sense that the countries in which they seek shelter or conduct business or find support do not accept culpability for their actions.<\/p>\n Y<\/span>et the present Western apology to all this is often to deal piecemeal with these perceived Muslim grievances:\u00a0India\u00a0, after all, is in Kashmir;\u00a0Russia\u00a0is inChechnya\u00a0;\u00a0America\u00a0is in\u00a0Iraq\u00a0,\u00a0Canada\u00a0is in\u00a0Afghanistan\u00a0;\u00a0Spain\u00a0was in\u00a0Iraq(or rather, still is in Al Andalus); or\u00a0Israel\u00a0was in\u00a0Gaza\u00a0and\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0. Therefore we are to believe that \u201cfreedom fighters\u201d commit terror for political purposes of \u201cliberation.\u201d At the most extreme, some think there is absolutely no pattern to global terrorism, and the mere suggestion that there is constitutes \u201cIslamaphobia.\u201d<\/p>\n Here at home, yet another Islamic fanatic conducts an act of al Qaedism in Seattle, and the police worry immediately about the safety of the mosques from which such hatred has in the past often emanated \u2014 as if the problem of a Jew being murdered at the Los Angeles airport or a Seattle civic center arises from not protecting mosques, rather than protecting us from what sometimes goes on in mosques.<\/p>\n But then the world is awash with a vicious hatred that we have not seen in our generation: the most lavish film in Turkish history,\u00a0\u201cValley of the Wolves<\/i>,\u201d depicts a Jewish-American harvesting organs at Abu Ghraib in order to sell them; the Palestinian state press regularly denigrates the race and appearance of the American Secretary of State; the U.N. secretary general calls a mistaken Israeli strike on a U.N. post \u201cdeliberate,\u201d without a word that his own Blue Helmets have for years watched Hezbollah arm rockets in violation of U.N. resolutions, and Hezbollah\u2019s terrorists routinely hide behind U.N. peacekeepers to ensure impunity while launching missiles.<\/p>\n If you think I exaggerate the bankruptcy of the West or only refer to the serial ravings on the Middle East of Pat Buchanan or Jimmy Carter, consider some of the most recent comments from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah about Israel: \u201cWhen the people of this temporary country lose their confidence in their legendary army, the\u00a0end of this entity<\/i>\u00a0will begin [emphasis added].\u201d Then compare Nasrallah\u2019s remarks about the U.S: \u201cTo President Bush, Prime Minister Olmert and every other tyrannical aggressor. I want to invite you to do what you want, practice your hostilities. By God, you will not succeed in erasing our memory, our presence or eradicating our strong belief. Yourmasses will soon waste away, and your days are numbered<\/i>\u00a0[emphasis added].\u201d<\/p>\n And finally examine here at home reaction to Hezbollah \u2014 which has butchered Americans in\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0and\u00a0Saudi Arabia\u00a0\u2014 from a prominent Democratic Congressman, John Dingell: \u201cI don\u2019t take sides for or against Hezbollah.\u201d And isn\u2019t that the point, after all: the amoral Westerner cannot exercise moral judgment because he no longer has any?<\/p>\n An Arab rights group, between denunciations of\u00a0Israel\u00a0and\u00a0America\u00a0, is suing its alma mater the\u00a0United States\u00a0for not evacuating Arab-Americans quickly enough from\u00a0Lebanon\u00a0, despite government warnings of the dangers of going there, and the explicit tactics of Hezbollah, in the manner of Saddam Hussein, of using civilians as human shields in the war it started against\u00a0Israel\u00a0.<\/p>\n Demonstrators on behalf of Hezbollah inside the\u00a0United States\u00a0\u2014 does anyone remember our 241 Marines slaughtered by these cowardly terrorists? \u2014 routinely carry placards with the Star of David juxtaposed with Swastikas, as voices praise terrorist killers. Few Arab-American groups these past few days have publicly explained that the sort of violence, tyranny, and lawlessness of the Middle East that drove them to the shores of a compassionate and successful\u00a0America\u00a0is best epitomized by the primordial creed of Hezbollah.<\/p>\n There is no need to mention\u00a0Europe\u00a0, an entire continent now returning to the cowardice of the 1930s. Its cartoonists are terrified of offending Muslim sensibilities, so they now portray the Jews as Nazis, secure that no offended Israeli terrorist might chop off their heads. The French foreign minister meets with the Iranians to show solidarity with the terrorists who promise to wipe Israel off the map (\u201cIn the region there is of course a country such as Iran \u2014 a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region\u201d) \u2014 and manages to outdo Chamberlain at Munich. One wonders only whether the prime catalyst for such French debasement is worry over oil, terrorists, nukes, unassimilated Arab minorities at home, or the old Gallic Jew-hatred.<\/p>\n I<\/span>t is now a clich\u00e9 to rant about the spread of postmodernism, cultural relativism, utopian pacifism, and moral equivalence among the affluent and leisured societies of the West. But we are seeing the insidious wages of such pernicious theories as they filter down from our media, universities, and government \u2014 and never more so than in the general public\u2019s nonchalance since Hezbollah attacked\u00a0Israel\u00a0.<\/p>\n These past few days the inability of millions of Westerners, both here and in Europe, to condemn fascist terrorists who start wars, spread racial hatred, and despise Western democracies is the real story, not the \u201cquarter-ton\u201d Israeli bombs that inadvertently hit civilians in Lebanon who live among rocket launchers that send missiles into Israeli cities and suburbs.<\/p>\n Yes, perhaps\u00a0Israel\u00a0should have hit more quickly, harder, and on the ground; yes, it has run an inept public relations campaign; yes, to these criticisms and more. But what is lost sight of is the central moral issue of our times: a humane democracy mired in an asymmetrical war is trying to protect itself against terrorists from the 7th<\/sup>\u00a0century, while under the scrutiny of a corrupt world that needs oil, is largely anti-Semitic and deathly afraid of Islamic terrorists, and finds psychic enjoyment in seeing successful Western societies under duress.<\/p>\n In short, if we wish to learn what was going on in\u00a0Europe\u00a0in 1938, just look around.<\/p>\n \u00a92006 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A familiar place. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online When I used to read about the 1930s \u2014 the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain, and Germany, the appeasement in France and Britain, the murderous duplicity of the Soviet Union, and the racist Japanese murdering in China \u2014 I […]<\/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":[771],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-11j","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10434,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trump-and-the-use-and-abuse-of-madness\/","url_meta":{"origin":3925,"position":0},"title":"Trump \u2014 And the Use and Abuse of Madness","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson National Review Fiery and unpredictable rhetoric can be a powerful strategic tool, but only if it\u2019s not habitual. Occasionally insanity, real or feigned, has its political advantages \u2014largely because of its ancillary traits of unpredictability and an aura of immunity from appeals to reason, sobriety, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Carter"","block_context":{"text":"Carter","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/carter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2748,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/thoughts-on-the-greek-madness\/","url_meta":{"origin":3925,"position":1},"title":"Thoughts on the Greek Madness","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's The Corner Anyone who has lived in Greece can see why the question of default or a \u201chaircut\u201d is not a matter of if, but when. It is a wonder that crazy things have lasted as long as they have there. The symptoms are well\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Greece"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13511,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-lethal-wages-of-trump-derangement-madness-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":3925,"position":2},"title":"The Lethal Wages of Trump Derangement Madness","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Think about it: For about five years,\u00a0anything\u00a0candidate, president-elect, and President Trump said or did, the media, the Left, and progressive popular culture opposed in Pavlovian fashion. Anything that Trump touched was ridiculed or discredited\u2014regardless of evidence, data, or cogency. The merits of a Trump\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 6 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 6 comments","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-lethal-wages-of-trump-derangement-madness-2\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3603,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/more-middle-east-madness\/","url_meta":{"origin":3925,"position":3},"title":"More Middle East Madness","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services \"The Palestinian people will never forgive the Hamas gangs for looting the home of the Palestinian people's great leader, Yasser Arafat.\" So Palestinian Authority spokesman Abdel Rahman recently exclaimed. \"This crime will remain a stain of disgrace on the forehead of Hamas and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2007"","block_context":{"text":"June 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/june-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2525,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-global-fairness-madness\/","url_meta":{"origin":3925,"position":4},"title":"The Global Fairness Madness","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Whether in the fights over the US debt limit or the rioting in Athens, the common global theme is not poverty in absolute terms, but more often fairness \u2014 as in having about the same amount of things as others do. Here in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Greece"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11272,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-europe-gets-no-respect\/","url_meta":{"origin":3925,"position":5},"title":"Why Europe Gets No Respect","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Hoover Institution After the recent G-7 meeting, some European nations such as France and Germany expressed anger that their views were given short shrift by Donald Trump\u2014displaying fits of pique memorialized in a now infamous photo of standing G-7 leaders who were leaning into a surrounded\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Donald Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925"}],"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=3925"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3927,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions\/3927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}