Merchants of Despair

National Review ^ | February 25, 2005 | Victor Davis Hanson

[mal]

Much of the recent domestic critique of American efforts in the Middle East has long roots in our own past — and little to do with the historic developments on the ground in Iraq

1. "It's America's fault."

Some on the hard left sought to cite our support for Israel or general "American imperialism" in the Middle East as culpable for bin Laden's wrath on September 11. Past American efforts to save Muslims in Kosovo, Bosnia, Somalia, Kuwait, and Afghanistan counted for little. Even less thanks were earned by billions of dollars given to Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority. The Islamofascist vision of a Dark Age world run by unelected imams — where women were in seclusion, homosexuals were killed, Jews were terrorized, Christians were routed, and freedom was squelched — registered little, even though such visions were by definition at war with all that Western liberalism stands for.

[Steel Wolf]

Once again, VDH nails it. Americans are a very critical people, and if something can go wrong, many will assume that it will. When it doesn't go wrong, there is no acknowledgment of it. When it does, there are cries of 'quagmire' and 'we told you so'. Our lack of perspective and historical understanding is probably our greatest weakness as a people.

[yeetch!]

There is a tone of satisfaction in the media these days

[StatenIsland]

What an essay. What can you say about this man that hasn't been said? From the final paragraph:

A final prediction: By the end of this year, formerly critical liberal pundits, backsliding conservative columnists, once-fiery politicians, Arab "moderates," ex-statesmen and generals emeriti, smug stand-up comedians, recently strident Euros — perhaps even Hillary herself — will quietly come to a consensus that what we are witnessing from Afghanistan and the West Bank to Iraq and beyond, with its growing tremors in Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, and the Gulf, is a moral awakening, a radical break with an ugly past that threatens a corrupt, entrenched, and autocratic elite and is just the sort of thing that they were sort of for, sort of all along — sort of...

Victor Davis Hanson...sustains me.

[quidnunc]

FYI

[USF]

Ping for later

[Check_Your_Premises]

What I like most about that last paragraph, is that as you read through the people he describes in general terms, you know exactly who he is talking about in particular.

[Armigerous]

I would take exception with one part of this essay. It isnt 'Americans' who do this to 'ourselves' - the sort of people who comprise the nay-sayers, pessimists and other asssorted defeatists do not consider themselves Americans for the most part- they consider themselves 'globalists' or 'internationalists' or 'citizens of the world' out of disdain for nationalism in general and 'American Exceptionalism'in particular, in order to demonstrate their own self perceived superiority to those of us who relish our Americanism and all the best things it stands for.

[Tolik]

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

       Let me know if you want in or out

[lilmsdangrus]

bump for later read

[MEG33]

Hanson is a treasure!

[wizr]

Thanks for the ping. I hope he's right.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Let me know if you want in or out

Me in.

[Valin]

What a coincidence! I just started "Understanding Anti-Ameicanism"
Its origins and impact at home and abroad
Edited by Paul Hollander.

[StoneGiant]

[lainde]

bttt

[PGalt]

Victor Davis Hanson is OUTSTANDING!

Thanks for taking the time to post.