by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n 1980 Redux<\/strong><\/p>\n We are in scary times. The horrific photos of Ambassador Stevens bring to mind memories of Mogadishu or Fallujah, and make us ask why were there not dozens, if not vastly more, Marines around him in his hour of need. By preemptively caving into radical Islam and not defending the US Constitution and our traditions of protecting even uncouth expression, the Cairo embassy\u2019s shameful communiqu\u00e9 only invited greater hostility by such manifest appeasement.<\/p>\n I\u2019m afraid that a number of hostile entities abroad will be reviewing all this in the context of the last four years and surmising that this may be the best time, as in 1979\u20131980 (e.g., Russians in Afghanistan, Communist take-overs in Central America, the Chinese invading Vietnam, hostages in Tehran, etc.), to cash in their chips. Radical Islamists knew that their governments in Egypt and Libya either would not, or could not, do anything when they went after Americans; talk of radical defense cuts and American financial implosion may encourage others to take chances when in the past they would not have; there is trouble brewing in Asian waters over disputed territories and perceptions that the US, whether conventionally or even in the nuclear sense, is not quite the strong ally of Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and the Philippines that it once was; when we snub the Israeli prime minister, after a long series of earlier slights, the message goes out to Tehran that the US is not entirely sure that it will aid Israel in its coming time of crisis. And by now we have heard enough Cairo-like speeches,Al Arabiya<\/em>\u00a0interviews, and seen enough bows to know that we can always find yet a new way to be culpable even for self-induced Middle East pathologies.<\/p>\n Note the recurrent theme: We always blame the wrong entities. We fault Netanyahu for making a supposed pest of himself for reminding us of Tehran\u2019s nuclear progress. We go after the nuts who made the anti-Muslim movie rather than the far greater danger of bloodthirsty Islamists who would murder to deny all free speech. When a Major Hasan goes on his rampage, our chief of staff of the army immediately laments the danger to our diversity program. We fret that KSM might not get his civil trial, or a Mutallab his Miranda rights. As Coptics are targeted, we assure ourselves that the Muslim Brotherhood is secular, and on and on.<\/p>\n Spike the Ball?<\/strong><\/p>\n Triumphalism is usually not wise, if only from a pragmatic point of view. The media had a field day when Bush unwisely allowed himself to be filmed speaking beneath a huge navy banner reading \u201cMission Accomplished.\u201d Yet it was strangely quiet when a laughing Hillary Clinton once boasted of Qaddafi\u2019s death \u2014 channeling Caesar\u2019s\u00a0veni, vidi, vici<\/em>\u00a0boast over the end of Pharnaces at Zela: \u201cWe came, we saw, he died.\u201d Or when we heard\u00a0ad nauseam<\/em>\u00a0from Joe Biden and others that \u201cGM\u2019s alive and Osama bin Laden is dead.\u201d In comparative terms, bombing a fleeing and forsaken Qaddafi or even taking out an isolated Osama in his compound may prove far less difficult than dealing with what is rising in the Middle East after the Arab Spring, what emerges from Syria, and what Iran becomes within a year or so. I would cool all this \u201cspike the ball rhetoric,\u201d and quietly carry an even bigger stick, because there is a lot going down abroad within the year.<\/p>\n \u00a92012 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner 1980 Redux We are in scary times. The horrific photos of Ambassador Stevens bring to mind memories of Mogadishu or Fallujah, and make us ask why were there not dozens, if not vastly more, Marines around him in his hour of need. By preemptively caving into radical Islam and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[116],"tags":[119,229,188,66,1053,160],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-7p","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":461,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/storming-embassies-killing-ambassadors-and-smart-diplomacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":0},"title":"Storming Embassies, Killing Ambassadors, and ‘Smart’ Diplomacy","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The attacks on the US embassy yesterday in Cairo and the storming of the American consulate in Libya, where the US ambassador was murdered along with three staff members \u2014 and the initial official American reaction to the mayhem \u2014 are all reprehensible,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Benghazi"","block_context":{"text":"Benghazi","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/benghazi\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6131,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-mood-of-1980\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":1},"title":"The Mood of 1980","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Next year could be a frightening one, in the fashion of 1979\u201380. The developing circumstances of our withdrawal from Afghanistan conjure up Vietnam 1975, with all the refugees, reprisals, humiliation, and emboldened enemies on the horizon, though this time there is no coastline for\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":3165,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/campaign-rhetoric-and-presidential-reality-a-brief-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":2},"title":"Campaign Rhetoric and Presidential Reality: A Brief History","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services American presidential election rhetoric always paints the incumbent as incompetent in foreign policy, the challenger insightful and skillful. A look at recent history, however, shows that once the opposition gains office, the world suddenly becomes not so black and white. The outsider Dwight\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2008"","block_context":{"text":"December 2008","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2008\/december-2008\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":440,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/middle-east-madness\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":3},"title":"Middle East Madness","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Last week, Muslim mobs took to the streets to murder the American ambassador in Libya and three of his staffers. American embassies were attacked from Egypt to Yemen. Embarrassed White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Libya"","block_context":{"text":"Libya","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/libya\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2962,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/foreign-policy-as-magical-thinking\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":4},"title":"Foreign Policy as Magical Thinking","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPageMagazine.com President Obama\u2019s foreign policy team is built around one key idea: the neglect of diplomacy by President Bush\u2019s \u201ccowboy\u201d unilateralism has damaged American prestige, alienated our allies, and worsened our problems abroad, particularly with the Islamic jihadists. Thus the new administration will restore diplomacy to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2103,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/resetting-the-reset-button\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":5},"title":"Resetting the Reset Button","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"As promised, Obama has set our diplomacy on a new track. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online After ten months of \u201cBush did it\u201d diplomacy, the Obama administration needs to reset its reset button. Europe On substantial issues, relations with Europe have not improved. The governments in France, Germany,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2009"","block_context":{"text":"December 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/december-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459"}],"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=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions\/460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}