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March 2008
Elsewhere on the WebVictor Davis Hanson’s Private Papers Victor Davis Hanson Archive on National Review OnlineTour Books
A War Like No Other How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War
by Victor Hanson
Amazon.com’s Best of 2001 Many theories have been offered regarding why Western culture has spread so successfully across the world, with arguments ranging from genetics to superior technology to the creation of enlightened economic, moral, and political systems. In Carnage and Culture, military historian Victor Hanson takes all of these factors into account in making a bold, and sure to be controversial, argument: Westerners are more effective killers.
by Victor Davis Hanson
by Victor Davis Hanson
by Victor Davis Hanson
by Victor Davis Hanson, John Keegan Hanson, for those who somehow have missed him until now, is a professor of Classics at California State and also is a part time farmer, both of which have contributed to his writing as a military historian. As a classicist, Hanson is well versed in the sources in their original Greek, and as a farmer he understands how agriculture affected the experience of the Greeks at war.
by Victor Davis Hanson
by Victor Davis Hanson
Hanson relates the life stories of his farmer neighbors, writing that their way of life will likely soon disappear, thanks in part to a federal system of agricultural subsidies that favors large-scale, industrial farm corporations over individual “yeomen.” This is a sobering and eye-opening book. by Victor Davis Hanson On first glance, The Soul of Battle appears to be three different books: biographies of two well-known generals—Sherman and Patton—and one who is virtually unknown today, the ancient Greek leader Epaminondas. Yet Victor Davis Hanson, a classics professor and author of The Western Way of War, makes a compelling connection between these three men. They were “eccentrics, considered unbalanced or worse by their own superiors” who led democratic armies on missions of freedom.
by Robert B. Strassler (Editor), Victor Davis Hanson (Introduction)
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March 17, 2008 3:46 PM
Our New NixonA “scholar” One of the defenses of the Rev. Wright advanced by Sen. Obama was that his (suddenly “former”) pastor is a biblical “scholar”. But one surely doesn’t sense anything scholarly about the firebrand Wright from his public lectures. He uses the notorious “N-word”. He enjoys profanity. “Ain’t” is common parlance. And in the tape when he screams about Bill Clinton “ridin’ dirty” with Monica, Wright then seems to illustrate that by shuddering with his body and right arm in a crude effort to simulate sexual intercourse from the pulpit. He calls Justice Thomas “Clarence Colon”: and Sec. Rice as “Condamnesia.” Add that to his “God Damn America”, his attacks on “the KKK of America”, and his crackpot notions about AIDs, the idea that cabbies (a vast majority of them of color) who pass by black males reflect white racism, etc. and Wright appears about as unscholarly as one can get.
Obama knew of his extremisms as evidenced by past interviews in which he mentioned Wright’s flair (cf. especially his encomium on 6/5/07), by his church attendance for more than twenty years, by his mention in his memoirs of Wright’s take on Hiroshima and other controversies, and by his admission he took Wright’s tapes to Harvard for inspiration. So here we have it: a candidate who professes racial transcendence is comfortable with a racist; a candidate who preaches a new candor and transparency reflects the worst of the old Chicago politics of dissimulation, and a candidate, after Ohio, in need of displaying moderation to woo white male voters from Hillary, has almost ensured that he will lose them by his very inability to distance himself from someone who by his own testimony despised just that constituency. I think Hillary will make the argument to the super-delegates that Obama will lose the election in the fall, that the super delegates should concentrate on the importance and size of her states versus his, and that aggregate popular votes should trump delegate counts, many of them acquired through caucuses rather than through plebiscites. Obama’s current disaster will give Clinton greater margins in the remaining primaries and allow her to gain the greater aggregate popular vote and to use that as well as an argument in the brokering to come. She may succeed but it won’t be pretty and will alienate millions. But then he already has as well. Since the Senator has taken up the role of the healer (I mean that without sarcasm), he should hold a brief press conference on race and apprise us of the rules. He states he would fire anyone who like Imus made derogatory racial remarks (e.g., ‘ho’s’), but how would that apply to himself and his continual membership in a church whose signature is racial hatred of whites, the United States, and conservative blacks? So just a few words about the rules of what gets one censured and ostracized, and what does not.
Lost in all this is that the racial healer Obama has probably done more to set back racial politics than almost any recent public figure in memory. His Rev. Wright is worse than Farrakhan whom the reverend praises. Had a Colin Powell or Condoleezza Rice run for President, the black vote would have split 50/50, there would have been no such extremists in the closet to worry about, and race would have been irrelevant. But Obama, who talked about making race as unimportant from the very beginning, through his ties with this racist church, with his pandering to Wright, with his wife’s outbursts, and by his own words in his memoirs, has made racial identity the center of his political existence. The final irony? A Powell or Rice no doubt experienced racial prejudice far more than did the younger, bi-racial Obama who did not grow up as an African-American on the mainland. …are not, as Wright professes, what we deserved on 9/11, but they reflect the presently composed Democratic party. It is completely captive to identity politics, and defines its leftwing African-American candidates not as post-racial, but as a constituency deserving a particular percent of the political spoils, whose rhetoric and extremisms are given broad exemption. And this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg—gay marriage for the gay community, open borders for the Hispanic community, Iraqi pull-out for the Moveon.orgers, all without the realization that most gays can get along fine with civil unions and without marriage comparable to straights, that most Mexican-Americans don’t want open borders, and those opposed to the war don’t want necessarily a surrender. No Sense of Self Remember, this was someone who went to prep school as Barry in Honolulu, then to elite Occidental, then Columbia, then Harvard, who was raised by his white grandparents, married a Princeton graduate and fellow Harvard law school graduate, was a beneficiary of numerous grants and loans, filed an income tax return of over $1 million dollars, got a sweetheart deal on house and grounds, was largely outside the African-American experience—and yet parlayed that all into a sense of victimhood, whether evidenced by the pique at having to pay back Ivy-League loans, or frequenting a rabid race-baiting and hate-mongering preacher, or putting his wife on the stump who expresses no pride in the U.S. All the old rules of moderation and humility never applied to this couple. Michelle bragged openly that we had only once chance at redemption, and that was to vote for her brilliant husband (e.g., “Barack is one of the smartest people you will ever encounter who will deign to enter this messy thing called politics”). His speeches were more like sermons on his utopian morality and what he could for the lesser others (“You will experience an epiphany. And you will say to yourself, I have to vote for Barack. I have to do it.”). Their narrative of America was one of a failed, “mean” society—despite their own stunning success. Both showed arrogance and ingratitude—and so are meeting nemesis as every would-be mortal who thinks himself a god does. What Happened? When he starts in the messianic speeches about healing, and going beyond race, and a new political kindness and honesty, millions will hear in the background only the coarse shouting of a hate-filled Wright “God Damn America!” and the softer falsetto-spoken whispers and excuses of “scholar” and “my pastor” and my “uncle.” The economy, Wall Street, mortgages, the war, Tibet, the dollar, oil, and gold go unremarked upon. God help us all. Comments (22)Jon R :Ron Kean :Wright's words do resonate over and over on TV, radio, and alone in the mind. Meanwhile McCain was good on Hannity although I disagree with him and think we should get to work on the oil in Alaska. I was at a dinner and a married couple, both teachers in their late 40's, were still hyping the Democrat Party line. They're out there. And I join in the hope that Obama's lost America. Ron Kean Trudy B. Taylor :dr hanson: you must be prescient, mr. obama will give a longish statement (dont know if he'll take questions) on "race" tuesday, the 18th, around 10 a.m. eastern time. as a female democratic strategist from uc berkley said today, it'll be "a teachable moment".i wonder just who needs teaching. im sure we'll all be listening carefully to his ballyhoo. in janurary i read a book by shelby steele entitled, "a bound man", concerning obama's probable inability to politically bridge the world of african-americans and mainstream america. he would either have to appeal to the emotional demands of the black populace he aspired to be identified with, by challenging white mainstream america, or he would have to become a bargainer who gave whites the benefit of the doubt as to treating blacks equally and transcend race in his campaign . in his book mr. steele maintains that he cannot be both a bargainer and a challenger. at that time i thought that perhaps mr. steele had gotten obama wrong, that somehow obama had managed both personas. now it looks like mr. steele nailed it. i think that obama's inability to define his relationship with his obstreperous preacher serves to illustrate Mr. steele's point. we shall see... njcommuter :Dr. Hanson, is it possible that Obama and the people he sides with can't tell that Americans who value "churchgoing" expect of it a message of love, brotherhood, service, faith, and redemption by those things? It is possible that they cannot tell the difference between the aroma of a garden and the stench of a midden, so long as they both stand at a pulpit? Or do they expect that their followers will not care or will not care to find out? The long campaign may have a virtue after all; it's harder to keep the rocks from being turned over. gringo :Yes, seems like Obambi is toast. But hopefully for the republican party, he will still win the candidacy. I am getting more worried about Hillary now - if she gets through, she will get a super rock start from the media. Of course, I am sure this could force the blacks to turn their backs on the DNC - but it could be fixed by getting Obambi's a position of vice-presidency. This scenario is very dangerous to America, and if Hillary loses, Obambi will be a much stronger opponent in 2012. Anyway, things are pretty fluid now. Steve MacDonald :Great post and as always, spot on. I admit to never having understood the black victimology in the states. Having spent most of my life overseas, often in places where bigotry and social injustice flourishes unrestrained, I have never understood what the big deal was. I find it absolutely astounding that a candidate for the Presidency of the USA could be caught up in something like this & still be assisted by much of the media. jdg :I've listened to many blacks call in on the radio in the last few days and share anecdotes about being stopped for no reason by police or otherwise being discriminated against. The truth is, blacks commit a disproportionate percentage of violent crime. So it's reasonable that police and others profile them, including the innocent, just as it's reasonable for young Muslim males to be profiled, even though most are innocent. Most of the crime committed by blacks is directed at other blacks. The black community obsesses on real and sure many perceived slights by the white community when they should focus on cleaning up their own house. Children out of wedlock and without fathers in their life at all, drugs, a disregard for education, and similar self-inflicted wounds are the real problems in the black community, not the occasional white racists. That's the truth and the healing that Obama should have the courage to talk about. David Johnson :Dear Dr. Hansen, I think there is a tie to Rev. Wright and Sen. Obama's willingness to speak to the President of Iran (I hate to attempt the spelling of his name without looking it up). Nothing the Iranian has said is shocking to Sen. Obama. He may even agree with some of it if he as attended Rev. Wright's church. Thank you for your great articles and all that you right. David K. :Just finished hearing Obama's sins-of-my-grandmother speech. He attempted to be everything to everyone...justify and redeem himself to whites, not offend or appear disloyal to blacks. Supporters will shout hallelujiahs, he is risen again; detractors will wonder what message was beneath the rhetorical frosting. The mainstream media will announce "Amen-let's-move-on" (to more elegant platitudes that avoid hard core and specific issues). Hillary's beady little eyes will look for every dropped morsel of opportunity-- or generate them on her own.
Greg Turner :I’m glad Mr. Obama was honest about his feelings for his pastor. He said that Mr. Wright is like family, like his grandmother who said things that made him cringe. I haven't seen any tapes of his white grandmother preaching white liberation theology. His honest support for Rev. Wright is good for his character but only proves the fact that he has very poor judgment regarding Black Liberation Theology. Mr. Obama wants us make him President of the United States but at the same time support his heartfelt desire to attend a self-described black separatist church. This completely contradicts his all inclusive message on the campaign trail. Mr. Obama can't have it both ways, all inclusive or black separatist on Sundays. He has clearly chosen to support his controversial church with it's divisive theology and social commentary. This tells me all I need to know about this liberal socialist with multiple personality to get elected disorder. Dave Begley -Omaha :1. Some of the apologists for Rev. Wright cite his status as a Marine. That former Marine should recall the number of fellow Marines that died on Iwo Jima and other tiny Pacific islands. The projected American deaths for an invasion of Japan were off the chart. Imperial Japan had *no* intention to surrender until after the use of two nuclear weapons. One wasn't enough to convince them. Truman's decision saved thousands of lives; white, black and yellow. 2. "We don't teach you what to think. We teach you how to think." That's what they told us at Creighton University. I guess Howard University, the University of Chicago and United Theological Seminary didn't have the same program for Rev. Wright. Or maybe he just rejected it in order to dupe less intelligent and educated people. Maybe he was just fleecing them. 3. Obama lied. Jim :
Papa Ray :Way before most knew the bile Wright has been spouting, my buds and I nailed Obama for what he is. A smart con man, who has a gift in gab. We talked about how he would make a great used car salesman or preacher. We marveled at the reaction he was getting from his followers, including women fainting. We all agreed that he was a dangerous man and that he must not be allowed to have any post with any power in our government. We have an advantage, as we are all over sixty and have seen a lot and know how to spot a huckster and fake. Having been taken advantage of by same over our long lives. But...we hope we are not the only ones, we pray that most Americans will see him for what he really is. Papa Ray celebrim :"Dr. Hanson, is it possible that Obama and the people he sides with can't tell that Americans who value "churchgoing" expect of it a message of love, brotherhood, service, faith, and redemption by those things?" Judging by the responce from the left wing community, non-church going Americans believe that Wright's performance is a typical pastoral performance. Hense, they wonder why aren't 'right-wing pastors' exposed to similar criticism. To the left, all religion is scary and exclusive and based on hatred, so what's the big deal about this example? Pieter :The conservative media is completely hypocritical about this issue. Next to nothing has been said about McCain's failure to seriously repudiate and reject the endorsement of Hagee. We don't hear any complaints about Hagee's glee in seeing hurricane Katrina prevent the "homosexual parade". We don't hear complaints about his insults to millions of Catholics. It's just another example of the WASP bias that dominates the elite of the Republican party. This story is a non-issue. Hanson has the freedom to write about what he wants. No one forced him to write about an obscure priest with no political power for his last two articles. If he wanted to write about the important issues he listed at the end of this article, he could have. Pung Dude :To the honorable Dr. Hanson: I am a bit less confident in the demise of Obama (which perhaps signifies less confidence in the "common man" to sort out the truth from the fiction, so to speak, given the upside down world we live in), especially after I read the online news reports about his speech today explaining his relationship with Wright. It is all so post-modern and squishy, never distinct and true. I honestly don't know whether the "people" will be able to make the same judgments as we all have here. However, I implicitly trust Dr. Hanson's judgment so will have faith in his vision, but I will refrain from the resultant grin at knowing it all along until his expected demise actually comes to fruition. Jimmy J. :Read Obama's speech. It was pretty good. Probably sounded better when he delivered it. (I didn't have time to watch it on TV.) I've seen some commenters at various blogs who swooned over this "very Presidential" speech. So, some people were impressed. I have some questions that weren't answered by the speech. To wit: There are other possible questions, but if we could get the answers to these few, we would know much more about Barack Obama. The last part of his speech was standard left wing boiler plate in which he depicted an America with unequal education, greedy corporations, inadequate healthcare, and venal special interests. He intimated that only he was pure and far-sighted enough to take on these problems with, of course, those who want to help him. I read that to mean we need more tax revenue, more regulation, more money for education, etc. All the old leftist bromides. A prediction: Hillary will be nominated because the super delegates will throw their support to her when it becomes apparent Obama can't win the general. How do I know? Dick Morris predicted the opposite on the O'Reilly show. I've been watching Dick Morris for several years now and he's never been right on predictions like this. John A :When talking with friends over two months ago, I told them that Obama's preacher would be exposed for the vile filth that he utters from his mouth. Obama needed to denounce the saying both verbally and with action. In my opinion, he did neither with the statement from yesterday. He tried to bring in his grandmother, but the truth is that his grandmother is family and his preacher is not. To denounce his preacher for saying the disgusting things he said is not to denounce his grandmother--as this crafty man would allude to in his rhetoric. Just my opinion! Mike :Dear Dr. Hanson: Thanks for all you do. May I offer an English teacher's perspective? One of Mr. Obama's problems--odd for one who supposedly is such a master of the mother tongue--is in syntax. By this I mean that he has, in his associations and speeches, made it clear that he is not an American who happens to be black, but is a black American. An American who happens to be black can very possibly win the White House, but not a black American. Racist? Imagine the (justified) outcry should John McCain identify himself as a white American and claim that he cannot distance himself from a white Jeremiah Wright analog or the "white community." Perhaps the greatest pity here is that I suspect that the overwhelming majority of Americans would gladly elect a black (or female) president, if they were qualified. The days of race being a disqualifier are all but over for most Americans, but sadly, they may not be over for those who come from the "black community," or who practice "black liberation theology." Has Mr. Obama's fealty to an outmoded, divisive, race-inspired creed doomed his presidential aspirations? I hope so. And I would hope the same for anyone playing racial politics of any stripe. Oh, and terribly sorry Mr. Obama's grandmother is such a racist. But wasn't it Jesse Jackson, not too many years ago, who admitted that when he heard footsteps on the street behind him at night, he was greatly relieved to find a white, not a black, face attached to those footsteps? Beating up one's elderly realitives isn't going to win Mr. Obama plaudits from people of any race. BRussell :The chasm between left and right in this country is un-bridgeable. We will eventually see the USA break apart in our lifetimes. Sorry, but we haven't been this apart since 1861. Michael Lonie :Peter, Nor is Obama's excuse that all preachers talk that way true. I have never heard a priest, pastor, or rabbi talk the way Wright does, spewing racist bigotry and antisemitism like a drunk does his dinner. The liberals and leftists are staggeringly hypocritical about this. Trudy B. Taylor :obama has reprimanded white mainstream america. at least now we know what the "teachable moment" the uc berkley prof was referring to before obama's speech was supposed to be: if white mainstream america cant figure out why it is perfectly reasonable for black americans to disparage whites, the constitutional government, our doctors and nurses or presidents, from black pulpits, then wma is inherently racist. this is what i heard over and over again on national public radio yesterday. it was all over the blogs, too. if wma is insulted by the screeds of preacher wright and his ilk .then we are " increasing the racial divide in this country". obama continually infers that he is the keystone in the arch of the bridge over this racial divide ( a divide fed, watered, and nurtured lavishly, it appears, by many black churches). yet he is incapable of reprimanding anyone save those who are the subjects of racial diatribes from those same pulpits. he's going to have to do better than that. 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The proclivity of the modern Democratic Party to self-destruct is truly remarkable. Three months ago, I wouldn't have given the Republicans a snowballs chance of winning. Today, at least as far as the presidency is concerned, they may need a world class botched performance to lose it. Fascinating.
Mar 17, 2008 05:02 PM