by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n T<\/span>here is a new strange mood of acceptance among Americans about the world beyond our shores. Of course, we are not becoming na\u00efve isolationists of 1930s vintage, who believe that we are safe by ourselves inside fortress America \u2014 not after September 11. Nor do citizens deny that America has military and moral obligations to stay engaged abroad \u2014 at least for a while yet. Certainly the United States is not mired in a Vietnam-era depression and stagflation and thus ready to wallow in Carteresque malaise. Indeed, if anything Americans remain muscular and are more defiant than ever.<\/p>\n Instead, there is a new sort of resignation rising in the country, as the United States sheds its naivet\u00e9 that grew up in the aftermath of the Cold War. Clintonism may have assumed that terrorism was but a police matter, that the military could be slashed and used for domestic social reform by fiat, that our de facto neutrals were truly our friends, and that the end of the old smash-mouth history was at hand. The chaotic events following the demise of the Soviet Union, the mass murder on September 11, and the new strain of deductive anti-Americanism abroad cured most of all that.<\/p>\n Imagine a world in which there was no United States during the last 15 years. Iraq, Iran, and Libya would now have nukes. Afghanistan would remain a seventh-century Islamic terrorist haven sending out the minions of Zarqawi and Bin Laden worldwide. The lieutenants of Noriega, Milosevic, Mullah Omar, Saddam, and Moammar Khaddafi would no doubt be adjudicating human rights at the United Nations. The Ortega Brothers and Fidel Castro, not democracy, would be the exemplars of Latin America. Bosnia and Kosovo would be national graveyards like Pol Pot’s Cambodia. Add in Kurdistan as well \u2014 the periodic laboratory for Saddam’s latest varieties of gas. Saddam himself, of course, would have statues throughout the Gulf attesting to his control of half the world’s oil reservoirs. Europeans would be in two-day mourning that their arms sales to Arab monstrocracies ensured a second holocaust. North Korea would be shooting missiles over Tokyo from its new bases around Seoul and Pusan. For their own survival, Germany, Taiwan, and Japan would all now be nuclear. Americans know all that \u2014 and yet they grasp that their own vigilance and military sacrifices have earned them spite rather than gratitude. And they are ever so slowly learning not much to care anymore.<\/p>\n In fact, an American consensus is growing that envy and hatred of the United States, coupled with utopian and pacifistic rhetoric, disguise an even more depressing fact: Outside our shores there is a growing barbarism with no other sheriff in sight. Any cinema student of the American Western can fathom why the frightened townspeople \u2014 huddled in their churches and shuttered schools \u2014 almost hated the lone marshal as much as they did the six-shooting outlaw gang rampaging in their streets. After all, the holed-up ‘good’ citizens were always angry that the lawman had shamed them, worried that he might make dangerous demands on their insular lives, confused about whether they would have to accommodate themselves either to savagery or civilization in their town’s future, and, above all, assured that they could libel and slur the tin star in a way that would earn a bullet from the lawbreaker. It was precisely that paradox between impotent high-sounding rhetoric and blunt-speaking, roughshod courage that lay at the heart of the classic Western from\u00a0Shane<\/a><\/i>\u00a0andHigh Noon<\/a><\/i>\u00a0to\u00a0The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance<\/a><\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0The Magnificent Seven<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n The U.N., NATO, or the EU: These are now the town criers of the civilized world who preach about “the law” and then seek asylum in their closed shops and barred stores when the nuclear Daltons or terrorist Clantons run roughshod over the town. In our own contemporary ongoing drama, China, Russia, and India watch bemused as the United States tries to hunt down the psychopathic killers while Western elites ankle-bite and hector its efforts. I suppose the Russians, Chinese, and Indians know that Islamists understand all too well that blowing up two skyscrapers in Moscow, Shanghai, or Delhi would guarantee that their Middle Eastern patrons might end up in cinders.<\/p>\n So an entire mythology has grown up to accommodate this false world of ours \u2014 sadly never more evident than during the recent tsunami disaster, a tragedy that has juxtaposed rhetoric with reality in a way that becomes each day more surreal. The wealthy Gulf States pledge very little of their vast petrol-dollar reserves \u2014 swollen from last year’s jacked-up gasoline prices \u2014 to aid the ravaged homelands of their Islamic nannies, drivers, and janitors. Indeed, Muslim charities advertise to their donors that their aid goes to fellow Muslims \u2014 as if a dying Buddhist or Christian is less deserving of the Muslim Street’s aid. In defense, officials argue that the ostracism of “charities” that funded suicide killers to the tune of $150 million has hampered their humanitarian efforts at scraping up a fifth of that sum. But then blowing apart Americans or Jews is always a higher priority than saving innocent Muslim children.<\/p>\n So even in death and misery, the world’s pathologies remain \u2014 as Israel is disinvited to help the dying as the most benevolent United States, which freed Afghanistan and toppled Saddam, is supposedly under scrutiny to “regain” its stature for its “crimes” of jailing a mass murderer and sponsoring elections in his place. Last year alone the United States gave more direct money to Egypt and Jordan than what the entire billion-person Muslim world has given for the dead in Indonesia.<\/p>\n China, flush with billions in trade surplus, first offers a few million to its immediate Asian neighbors before increasing its contributions in the wake of massive gifts from Japan and the United States. Peking’s gesture was what the usually harsh\u00a0New York Times<\/i>\u00a0magnanimously called “slightly belated.” In this weird sort of global high-stakes charity poker, no one asks why tiny Taiwan out-gives one billion mainlanders or why Japan proves about the most generous of all \u2014 worried the answer might suggest that postwar democratic republics, resurrected and nourished by the United States and now deeply entrenched in the Western liberal tradition of democracy, capitalism, and humanitarianism, are more civil societies than the Islamic theocracies, socialist republics, and authoritarian autocracies of the once-romanticized third world.<\/p>\n In the first days of the disaster, a Norwegian U.N. bureaucrat snidely implied that the United States was “stingy” even though private companies in the United States, well apart from American individuals, foundations, and the government, each year alone give more aggregate foreign aid than does his entire tiny country. Apparently the crime against America is not that it gives too little to those who need it, but that it gives too little to those who wish to administer it all. When the terrible wave hit, Kofi Annan was escaping the conundrum of the Oil-for-Food scandal by skiing at Jackson Hole, so naturally George Bush down in ‘ole Crawford Texas was the global media’s obvious insensitive leader \u2014 “on vacation” as it were, while millions perished.<\/p>\n The U.S. military is habitually slurred even though it possesses the world’s only lift and sea assets that could substantially aid in the ongoing disasters in Indonesia and Thailand. Blamed for having too high a profile in removing the Taliban and Saddam, it is now abused for having too meek a presence in Southeast Asia. No doubt America should have “preempted” the wave and acted in a more “unilateral” fashion. Meanwhile we await the arrival of theCharles De Gaulle<\/i>\u00a0and its massive fleet of life-saving choppers that can ferry ample amounts of Saudi, Chinese, and Cuban materiel to the dying \u2014 emissaries all of U.N. and EU multilateralism.<\/p>\n All this hypocrisy has desensitized Americans, left and right, liberal and conservative. We will finish the job in Iraq, nursemaid democratic Afghanistan through its birthpangs, and continue to ensure that bandits and criminal states stay off the world’s streets. But what is new is that the disenchanted American is becoming savvy and developing a long memory \u2014 and so we all fear the day is coming when he casts aside the badge, rides the buckboard out of town, and leaves such sanctimonious folk to themselves.<\/p>\n \u00a92005 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Are we growing world-weary? by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online There is a new strange mood of acceptance among Americans about the world beyond our shores. Of course, we are not becoming na\u00efve isolationists of 1930s vintage, who believe that we are safe by ourselves inside fortress America \u2014 not after September 11.<\/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":[792],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1aP","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2560,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/an-exceptional-fourth-of-july\/","url_meta":{"origin":4515,"position":0},"title":"An Exceptional Fourth of July","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services For the last 235 years, on the Fourth of July, Americans have celebrated the birth of the United States, and the founding ideas that have made it the most powerful, wealthiest, and freest nation in the history of civilization. But as another Fourth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3692,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/america-the-blameworthy\/","url_meta":{"origin":4515,"position":1},"title":"America the Blameworthy","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Dinesh D'Souza Takes Place among the Serial Blame Artists by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services After 9\/11, many leftists cited American faults that supposedly accounted for Osama bin Laden's savage attack. The late Susan Sontag, for example, justified the terrorists' suicide bombing: \"Where is the acknowledgment that this was\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":[]},{"id":3705,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/club-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":4515,"position":2},"title":"Club America","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"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.\" But at that same time, leading Confederate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Janurary 2007"","block_context":{"text":"Janurary 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/janurary-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4413,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/on-being-disliked\/","url_meta":{"origin":4515,"position":3},"title":"On Being Disliked","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 29, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The new not-so-unwelcome anti-Americanism by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Last year the hysteria about the hostility toward the United States reached a fevered pitch. Everyone from Jimmy Carter to our Hollywood elite lamented that America had lost its old popularity.It was a constant promise of the Kerry campaign\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "April 2005"","block_context":{"text":"April 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/april-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8080,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/america-continues-to-thrive\/","url_meta":{"origin":4515,"position":4},"title":"America Continues to Thrive","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Even in its current malaise, the U.S. still soars above the global competition. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Germany\u2019s first chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, supposedly once said that there was \u201ca special providence for drunkards, fools, and the United States of America.\u201d Apparently, late 19th-century observers could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/economy-europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via NRO","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/pic_giant_121114_SM_Flags_0-500x291.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3242,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/american-compared-to-what\/","url_meta":{"origin":4515,"position":5},"title":"America Compared to What?","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services After the September financial meltdown, many abroad, and some at home, immediately \u2014 and with undisguised glee \u2014 blamed America's problems on cowboy excess and forecast the end of American global influence. But while those opportunistic critics had a point that reckless Americans\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "November 2008"","block_context":{"text":"November 2008","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2008\/november-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4515"}],"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=4515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4516,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4515\/revisions\/4516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}