{"id":7055,"date":"2014-02-26T14:09:26","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T22:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=7055"},"modified":"2014-02-26T14:09:26","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T22:09:26","slug":"putin-is-putin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/putin-is-putin\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin Is Putin"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO’s The Corner<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I am used to being sent bizarre things from readers of\u00a0The American Conservative<\/em>, but former Ron Paul\u00a0foreign-policy adviser Leon Hadar\u2019s accusation that I somehow published on\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0a pass for Vladimir Putin is unhinged: \u201cOther conservative-leaning pundits perpetuated the meme. Matt Drudge\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0Putin the \u2018leader of the free world,\u2019 while\u00a0Victor Davis Hanson, who in\u00a0what sounded like a bizarre S&M fantasy<\/a>, ruminated that \u2018Putin is almost Milton\u2019s Satan \u2014 as if, in his seductive evil, he yearns for clarity, perhaps even a smackdown, if not just for himself, for us as well.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He obviously has\u00a0never\u00a0<\/em>read the entire op-ed on Putin \u2014 or Milton\u2019s\u00a0Paradise Lost<\/em>. My point, of course, was to remind us that evil still exists in the world, and comes in faces that confuse or even mesmerize those who are arrogant enough to assume\u00a0that it is now\u00a0part of our Neanderthal past. And that is why paleocons criticized the column for apparently being unnecessarily dismissive of Putin. My point to any sensible reader was to\u00a0warn\u00a0<\/em>about Putin\u2019s (\u201ca coiled cobra\u201d and a \u201cStalin\u201d) evil, which grows the more it appeals to misguided Westerners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO’s The Corner\u00a0 I am used to being sent bizarre things from readers of\u00a0The American Conservative, but former Ron Paul\u00a0foreign-policy adviser Leon Hadar\u2019s accusation that I somehow published on\u00a0National Review<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[375,146],"tags":[894,424],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1PN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7402,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/victor-davis-hanson-on-the-bill-martinez-show-2710-51414\/","url_meta":{"origin":7055,"position":0},"title":"Victor Davis Hanson on the Bill Martinez Show (VDH interview begins at 27:10)","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Click Here to Listen to the Interview now!\u00a0 VDH interview begins at 27:10 (Begins again after the break at 41:30) VDH\u00a0discusses his article\u00a0What Drives Vladimir Putin? He also discusses his latest article\u00a0Tweets Won\u2019t Stop Modern Barbarians\u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Russia"","block_context":{"text":"Russia","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/russia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/billmartinez.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11136,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/five-catastrophic-decisions\/","url_meta":{"origin":7055,"position":1},"title":"Five Catastrophic Decisions","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review 1) The Obama administration\u2019s invitation to Vladimir Putin to come into Syria ostensibly to stop the use of weapons of mass destruction. The latter did not happen, but after an over 40-year Russian hiatus in the Middle East, Putin has recalibrated the region, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Vladimir Putin"","block_context":{"text":"Vladimir Putin","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/vladimir-putin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7088,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-modest-proposal-on-ukraine\/","url_meta":{"origin":7055,"position":2},"title":"A Modest Proposal on Ukraine","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO's the Corner\u00a0 Of all the advice to Obama to reverse his brand of Carterism, the best might simply be to shut his eyes, and every time he gets angry and is about to say something about Israel, stop, and think first to substitute the reset\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ukraine"","block_context":{"text":"Ukraine","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/ukraine\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7301,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-drives-vladimir-putin\/","url_meta":{"origin":7055,"position":3},"title":"What Drives Vladimir Putin?","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Aggressors often attack weaker neighbors to restore a sense of pride.\u00a0 by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online\u00a0 Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia is a disaster of a declining population, corruption, authoritarianism, a warped economy, and a high rate of alcoholism. Why, then, would Putin want to ruin additional territory in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Russia"","block_context":{"text":"Russia","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/russia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/800px-Vladimir_Putin-6-300x209.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6440,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-bare-chested-machiavelli\/","url_meta":{"origin":7055,"position":4},"title":"A Bare-Chested Machiavelli","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO's The Corner \u00a0 It is unfortunate that Vladimir Putin could not use his formidable diplomatic skills at home to address his own near failing state rather than showcasing them abroad at our expense. Oh, well . . . 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