Christmas Day Observations
The Last Full Measure
I thought throughout this Christmas day of the terrible sacrifice of our soldiers, now and in the past, whose ultimate sacrifices gave us this wonderful country. I don’t how youth today can go up into the Hindu Kush and fight savages like the Taliban jihadists on their home turf, or wade into Anbar province to battle Saddamites and Wahhabi killers. But they do, and we owe almost everything to them, as we did in the past to those at Gettysburg and Okinawa and Choisun.
The Great Disconnect
For all the holiday depression with the state of the world, there is great munificence and affluence around the globe, and especially here in the United States that have brought us a long way, for both good and evil, from our primordial existence of even the immediate past.
Part of the pre-January rhetoric of the Democrats is the notion of great inequality. Yet despite the budget deficits, the piling up of national debt, and amid the doom and gloom of the vast amount of US capital held by Chinese, or oil payouts to the Arabs, or a declining standard of education, there are signs of American wealth never seen before among any civilization on earth.
I live in one of the poorest sections of one of the poorer counties in California, but consider: there were near riots to get the latest PlayStation 3 video games nearby. I was looking at a 4-wheel drive truck recently, and passed up all the “extras” offered by the salesman—leather seats, GPS, DVD player, extra chrome, multiplayer CD—but that extravagant Toyota Tundra was snapped up by a family on welfare in the booth next to me. With a zero-interest loan package, and no money down, apparently almost anyone can walk into a showroom and drive out with a $40,000 monster-sized truck.
Then I drove into the local shopping center and walked through Office Max, Wal-Mart, and Food4Less where there were more signs of America’s new encompassing wealth. There were new Camrys and Accords all over the parking lot, nearly everyone was on a cell phone. Nearly everyone was also speaking Spanish and no doubt a first generation immigrant (legal or not from Mexico). But in terms of traditional notions of poverty and the ability to acquire material goods, food, communications gear, transportation, etc. they were hardly poor.
Perhaps this new prosperity that encompasses almost all social classes in America is due to the miracle of science that now gives us such cheap appurtenances, or the addition of 1 billion Indian and Chinese fabricators to the world’s work force that results in endless consumer goods; or the ability of low interest and almost universal instant credit.
We are not talking of European vacations, second homes, or SAT camps for junior, but nonetheless there is something very different from the past that I remember when the poor nearby lacked indoor plumbing and at school in the early 1960s students ate thirds and fourths at our noon meal of barely edible surplus cafeteria food. Surely something has gone right in eliminating elemental poverty that we never hear in the din of constant accusations and complaints about American inequality.
This summer I bought on sale an old-style color television, 32-inch screen (the kind with the big tube in the back and curved front) for about $130. A decade ago it would have cost $500. The surprise was that the clerk laughed about what he thought was the idiocy of wanting one of these now obsolete, but perfectly fine, televisions. He probably made about $10 an hour, but would never have apparently stooped to such sacrifice. Again, any discussion about this surreal world is entirely lacking in the current political debate.
A final note. I wrote about such anomalies about three years ago when I broke my arm and visited the local emergency room in Selma about three miles away. Nothing much has changed since then, which is good—however little the credit this country gets from its critics. (http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson031304.htm)
Don’t Talk with Ahmadinejad!
Right in the midst of all these calls for talking with Iran—whether by realists like Zbigniew Brzezinski or naifs like John Kerry—we see the following happening to Ahmadinejad: his anti-American slate of Islamists can’t even win the usual rigged elections; he is shouted down by students during an internationally taped address; the timid UN actually passes a resolution calling for some boycotts and embargoes of his government; Tony Blair damns him in tones far exceeding anything George Bush said in his Axis of Evil speech; Iranian terrorists are embarrassingly captured and detained by Americans in Iraq; and his handouts in the billions to Hezbollah in Lebanon are enraging hard-pressed Iranians.
In other words, he is taking Iran into further isolation and poverty—and is ever more unpopular at home. Why, when our steady, quiet, and calm ostracism of this madman is working, would we want to hand him the stature and the legitimacy that even his own people will not extend?
Anti-Semitism?
While driving through Fresno this Christmas evening, I saw some “peace” demonstrators at an intersection shouting about “Free Palestine” and condemning Israel. It is now taboo to say such legitimate criticism is grounded in anti-Semitism. But I think it is—and here’s why.
On this Christmas day there is a terrible amount of injustice in the world. All of Tibet has simply been absorbed by China. Greek Cyprus is still occupied by an illegitimate Turkish state. Iran is killing innocents in Iraq and violating UN accords to get the bomb. In Darfur there is a real genocide. Somali Islamists are killing Ethiopians. Hezbollah and Syria are trying to destroy Lebanese democracy. The list of injustice and carnage could be expanded.
Why then would these particular protestors ignore all these other atrocities to focus entirely on the Jewish state—especially when over a million Arabs live in peace and enjoy the benefits of democracy inside Israel?
The answer can only be that something about Israel—not any facts that it is uniquely harsh to its neighbors by the world’s standards—infuriates a few elite Westerners to the point of driving them out on the streets of Fresno at Christmas. And that singular emotion that privileges purported Israeli felonies over all the others in the world, I submit, can only be explicable in terms of hating the notion of a Jewish state.
The point again is not the legitimate criticism of a foreign nation, but the obsession with the purported misdemeanors of a humane democracy and the complete lack of comparable interest in the felonies of murderous dictatorships around the globe. Why, why, why?
Three Stages of Development in the Middle East?
No doubt that the Islamic Middle East—four major wars against Israel; twenty years of nihilistic bloodletting in Afghanistan; the million-dead Iran-Iraqi war; Pakistan’s ritual wars against India; thousands butchered by Saddam; Syria’s vaporization of the town of Hama; Lebanon’s twenty years of assassinations and bombings; Nasser’s gassing of Yemenis; the Black September bloodbath in Jordan, serial Iranian murdering of dissidents, Algeria’s death struggle against the Islamists—was always a mess, and is only getting worse.
Everything and Nothing
But there is a difference now. What has changed? Everything and nothing.
Nothing in the sense that tribal, sectarian, and religious hatred continues, along with the old random killing and torture. Women are still second-class citizens; Christians live in fear; Muslims demand protocols that they would never extend to others (try walking into Mecca in the manner a Muslim strolls into the Vatican or opening a new church in Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Syria the way Muslim exiles found mosques in the West).
But suddenly in the last four years there is a new wrinkle to the old violence. After the elections, Fatah and Hamas on some days are fighting among themselves more than they are against Israel. TV stations broadcast live feed from Iraqi parliament debates when before such film usually captured “delegates” being called out by Saddam to be summarily executed outside the auditorium door. The most primordial tribal society in the Middle East in Afghanistan is now trying to stabilize a democracy. And while the same old/same old killing continues in Lebanon, there is a democratically elected government that includes both Muslims and Christians. And who would have thought the children of Moammar Khadafi would be discussing the pros and cons of democracy coming to Libya with Western journalists?
A Little Something
Expect more violence, more denunciations of the Bush doctrine of encouraging democracy in the Middle East, from Western elite leftists, hard-core realists, the unhinged Lew Rockwell/American Conservative isolationists, and hothouse Arab intellectuals. But if just a few states could break through this second-stage chaos and establish a democratic government, the entire region would have a ray of hope that never shone amid the millions of corpses in the past.
So besides seeing faction kill faction, or dictatorship murder rival dictators, what we are witnessing in post-Saddam Iraq, post-Taliban Afghanistan, post-Arafat Palestine, or post-Syrian Lebanon, is also a different kind of violence where for the first time in recent memory elections and the notion of democracy are part of the landscape.
And in the bleak world of the Middle East, that little counts for a little something.
Prof Hanson,
The only reason a certain group of people want us to talk to Iran is that it demonstrates to others that old canard, “…of doing something…”. Many of these same people fail (are incapable of?) to take the long view of unfolding events, which you so eloquently do in your writing.
I would prefer the Prez do something with Iran, like taking out training camps and some other limited actions. But, I don’t have the information he has so I will have to remain satisfied with the current trends in Iran, which appear favorable to US interests.
Great Christmas reflections, btw.
Tip to VDH: if you do buy a new truck be sure to get satellite radio. I prefer Sirius to XM. It is worth every penny. BBC, CSPAN, Fox, Bloomberg, CNBC and NO commercials on the great music channels.
Yes, sir. The barely hidden mugs of anti-semitism behind the holy masks of those claiming protection for “oppressed” Palistinians. Why indeed this frantic obsession against one side in one struggle? Also, you note that there are some signs of progress in the Middle-East. An apt reminder for the Christmas season.
You describe two types of people: Those, such as those in the armed forces, who practice self sacrifice, and those “well educated” and afflluent who demonstrate a self-critical self-loathing. This latter group is obsessed about their own unhappiness and seek a villain to blame for their feeling of emptiness.
Dr. Hanson –
This is my first ever written response to any type of written commentary piece, editorial, or otherwise (including blogs), so please forgive me for errors or informalities, given that I am a novice at this. Noentheless, I feel compelled to finally share some thoughts with you, especially since you have shared so many thoughts with me via your writings. Please indulge me for a few minutes.
I first discovered your writing (although at the time, I did not “know” it was yours) on National Review Online sometime during late 2002 or early 2003. At that time, I was just discovering the vast amount of perspectives and commentaries concerning current events, legal affairs, foreign policy, and politics generally, that was available on the web (not really having taken the time to look around that much on the web previously). I found myself returning frequently to a few specific sites, NRO among others, to read columns from authors I found interesting, witty, articulate, and insightful, including Jonah Goldberg, Andy McCarthy, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, Don Luskin, Norman Podhoretz, and Dan Henninger, among others.
As I am sure you will recall, around the time the Iraq war started, the heat and intensity (and frequently, the level of bile) was dialed up considerably in a lot of the writings out on the web across the board (along with much of the other media). One could find, without too much trouble, withering critiques of the administration (and its foreign policies) on both sides, from left wing fulminations about “no blood for oil” to right wing rants about the folly of fighting for “those people” over there (since they could not possibly handle real democracy).
I recall feeling somewhat dizzy and annoyed with the constant, angry, and often knee-jerk back and forth drivel concerning the foreign policy of our country, specifically concerning the manner (even the necessity) of fighting the GWOT, and more specifically the Iraq war. At times, it seemed more like I was reading up on various forms of psychic venting than any insightful analysis.
I soon figured out why I was drawn back time and again to NRO (and some other sites), even though I found many authors there to be a bit tedious. Every week or so there was a column posted by a guy I had never heard of before that came across, firmly against the grain, as a major breath of fresh air compared to the other columns, a voice of clarity that separated quite easily from the din.
At the conclusion of reading every single one, I found myself literally saying out loud, “Bravo!” or “Amen!” or “That’s exactly what I was thinking, but could not find the words!” Occasionally, with the more masterful columns, I would even forward the link to these pieces along to friends, family, and colleagues. As time went on, I found myself waiting regularly (at times even impatiently) for the next column to be posted there. Eventually, I figured out the day(s) to expect the columns, and then, going to NRO (or one of the other sites) to read the column became the first thing I did on the days I expected the column to be posted.
The gifted columnist I am referring to, of course, is you.
I cannot begin (although I will try) to tell you how proud I was (and still am) to have sifted through all of the chatter and clutter (and frankly, a lot of plain old fashioned dreck) in the world today (especially out on the web) and found your voice, all on my own. Of course, I guess it should not really be all that shocking, given the clarity, depth of perspective, and historical (particularly, military and classic) knowledge that you bring to bear in all of your writings.
Even more, once I figured out your name (and who you were, your training, education, job position, etc.), I went out and bought and read (cover to cover in short order) two of your more recently published books (“An Autumn of War” and “Between War and Peace”), so I could “catch up” on your columns that I had missed before discovering them on NRO (and some other sites) in late 2002 or early 2003. (As an aside, I think it would be fascinating if you could post a running list on your website of the books you are reading, along with a short snapshot of some of your thoughts and reactions about the book or why you are reading it.)
Anyway, to this very day, I eagerly await your writings, whether it be your syndicated TMS column, your NRO column, your books, your various articles for City Journal, The WSJ, National Review, Commentary Magazine, Claremont Review of Books, The American Enterprise Magazine (nka The American), and of course, this new blog site. Needless to say, I was greatly relieved to have discovered your website, so I could visit it a few times each week to follow your writings without having to keep up on all of those other sites! I am also grateful for the links to your speeches and debates, which I could not attend in person but greatly enjoyed watching and hearing.
This new blog is superb, as well. It is also fascinating to be able to see reader responses (and be able to contrast what is written to you here vs. the “angry reader” posts from your website). I still find great comfort, education, perspective, and at times, solace, in your writings every time I read one (whether it be here or your posted columns on your website).
In this regard and about a prior post of yours (concerning the fact that you seem to go on and on about the war), I have a personal request: please, please, please – do not stop writing about the GWOT, including the Iraq war, and the other critical aspects of our nation’s foreign policy and military matters. You have far too much to offer the American public to simply discontinue your writings about your thoughts on the GWOT, the Iraq war, and more generally, security risks facing our nation from a military perspective.
For my part, I would be greatly disappointed if you were to withdraw from the most important discussion facing our country. Plus, I know there is a silent majority out there, who feels very much the same way that I do. (I am fairly confident about this having been a card carrying member right up until the point I submitted this post.) Now more than ever, a clear voice of wisdom and understanding is critical to making sense of the chaos around us, especially in view of the fact that radicals on both sides are given to shouting down opinions and ideas they do not like, regardless of First Amendment notions of open debate, dialogue, and the marketplace of ideas.
I could not feel more strongly that it is absolutely crucial that we, as Americans, soberly confront and address the serious threats facing our country. The federal government and bureaucracy is pretty worthless at lots of things, but one of its most (and frankly, probably the most) fundamental missions is set forth at the very top of our Constitution, and is a founding basis for the United States of America: namely, to “…provide for the common defense…and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”
Many grammar school children memorize and recite these words, and many more know them, but I think far too few (if any?) ponder their actual meaning. To me, this is the very essence, the core, and primary purpose of our federal government, and in the present dangerous world, it is a mission in which none of us can afford to have it fail, lest we lose those Blessings of Liberty for which our forefathers fought so hard and paid for with so many lives.
While I am acutely aware of the many sacrifices made in our country’s history, I am, candidly, not as educated about the details of the many wars our country (or other countries, for that matter) has fought as I could (or probably should) be. It is your unique ability to tap into this very rich vein of American (and more broadly, world and classic) military history that makes your writing and commentaries so special and insightful, and to me, why they resonate so deeply with so many readers and offer such fresh perspectives.
In sum, I truly believe your writing is a national treasure, a gift for all Americans who care about the future of our country. It is my sincere hope that you never stop writing about the crucially important things for which you are uniquely able and deeply talented. Please accept my sincere thanks, as I am deeply gratified by, and appreciative of, the writing you do every day.
Please keep up your great work.
Best Regards,
GGA – Dublin, Ohio
Dr. Hanson,
Thanks for pointing out important positive trends in this mess of a world. You make some excellent points.
One observation… I don’t think most of the pro-Palestinian “peace” demonstrators are anti-Semites in motivation. Rather, their world view is shaped by the still popular Marxist-derived oppressor/oppressed paradigm.
Israel is successful economically, militarily and socially. The Palestinians fail on all three fronts. Since they are antagonists, then the knee-jerk Marxist automatically identifies Israel as the oppressor and the Palestinainas as the oppressed. A reflex towards this sort of twisted interpretation runs deep in the modern left – to the point where people who have never heard of Marx or would not identify with communism are infected with this poison.
We see it all the time, whether in the tired “rich/poor gap getting wider,” the bizarre international views of the modern left, or the attitudes towards corporations (rich = oppressor).
Hatred of Israel.
At the risk of sounding too religious, I’ll trot out my little theory about Israel and its eternal problem with much of the rest of the world. It’s probably something our gray heads like Jimmy, “the Peacemaker,” Carter never considered, but the idea merits some small and serious consideration because the land couches at the navel of the world and has forever been a pivot about which the conscience of the old world slued.
I have always believed that as lomg as one Jew remains on the planet there will be hatred focussed on him because of the Almighty’s covenant with the “sons of Abraham.” It does not matter whether the target of the hatred is a practicing Jew or not, it only matters that God has sworn an oath with one family. It only matters that somewhere in the darkest and most minute reaches of that one person’s DNA lies the intonation that the “Lord God is one God, and He is our God,” and this causes other people of evil bent to despise him automatically.
From an entirely mundane standpoint, the Jews are a wonderfully adaptable individual race who can scrape a living out of a next to nothing piece of real estate like Israel, and of course, that’s got to gall the ones who lived there during the Jewish absence, the ones who did little but subsist and infight and inbreed.
This hatred is cosmic violence that masquerades as fraternal politics, nothing more nor less than covetousness shrouded in a pretense of displacement, envy cloaked in feigned self righteousness.
Of course, the same could be said of the underclass on our own country…but that’s a subject for another day.
I am looking for the old section that allowed VDH’s readers to ask him questions. I have not found it, so I am posting here in the hope that he will see it. You wrote this in an article that I have saved for many months. The article, which is my all-time favorite, is entitled “If the Dead Could Talk”. “…such as an Iran that is building a bomb, harbored many of the 9/11 terrorists, and is the natural depot of al Qaeda planners from Saudi Arabia?” What is the al Qaeda/Iran connection? I have read elsewhere that the Sunni members of al Qaeda and the Shia Iranian government are not friendly.
Re: The Great Disconnect
Watch Obama, he’ll be running on the “poverty” issue.
Great post as usual.
I wondered the same thing about the anti-semitism theory when I was in Greece this summer visiting my husband’s family during the Lebanese conflict. To be fair, they equate Israel with the US, and dislike both, but they see no threat from Islamist extremists. I know alot of their anti US bias comes from the Junta but no one seems to connect the Ottoman empire with the goals of al-Qaida in the present day.
The “hatred” of people of Jewish heritage in general and of Israel in particular arises from a perfect storm of jealousy, envy, insecurity, need for strawmen, and an even larger need for a “they/them” to galvanize a “we/us” out of a group that would otherwise be turning on each other.
Allow me to attempt to piece this “throw all the entrails of hate into a crock pot and let it boil” Anti-Semite stew that emanates from the Mideast but is available in all four corners of the globe.
Why? Some things are easy to explain, others require a little knowledge of history.
And culture. In the Mideast, the differing tribes/groups (Sunni, Shia, Arab, and subsects Wahhabi etc) operate as clans…we tend to see things from an American viewpoint, where (except in the South), history means yesterday afternoon and regionalism is confined to the Big Ten vs. the Pac Ten. At best.
Jews represent a different tribe, who are small in number and are to be enslaved and/or vanquished.
Having been driven out of their homeland, after having been enslaved…to come back and reclaim that land is an “affront” to the “king of the hill” Mideast mentality.
Forget that the world GAVE them the right to the land (which was being held by the British, in a larger area of Pan Jordan called the BRITISH “Palestinian” Mandate).
Forget that they had been legitimately purchasing land under real estate contracts prior to that date and time.
Forget that NOBODY …for DECADES….had any use for the sliver of land they were given, hadn’t developed it, were perfectly happy to sell it to anyone….well, anyone…except the Jews.
Resistance to the STATE of Israel…comes from the territorial imperative of the other tribes. ANYONE but a Jew, is basically the stance.
And they attacked Israel in her infancy. In fact, unprovoked attacks took place several times…and the other tribes were humiliated…by this little startup upstart company…of a “tribe” of people who …in sum total all over the world wouldn’t make up a decent state fair gathering in Texas or New York.
Of course, the Vatican and other Christian sects are hard pressed to claim such clean hands. Growing up, “Christ killer” (often uttered soto voce in latin…perhaps apropos… a dead language)was not an uncommon slur.
A billion plus Catholics, a billion plus Muslims, a billion Hindus, a billion Buddhists…vs 16 million Jews, makes for a pretty lopsided network to get out the “message”.
When you own the “message”, you own the truth.
So, how does one explain that this relatively tiny “tribe” from the same Mideast region…succeeds in EVERY form of human endeavor…when others fail?
In order to allow an Arab to retain pride…he must demonize the Jew. “They” cheat, “they” steal, “they” drink the blood of our children.
For if “they” are not monsters…then Allah favors “them” over “us”, because he has given “them” brains, money, talents…and “we” have virtually nothing.
There is some kneejerk negative response to the religious belief of being the “chosen people”…and that certainly fuels the fires of jealousy and envy.
Have’s vs. have not’s…the latter need little impetus for finding the maximum grievance out of the smallest slights. “I’m not making it, BECAUSE….”they”, “the man”, “the establishment”, “the rich”, are keeping “us” down.
Losers and failures inspect others with microscopes and steadfastly avoid mirrors and clear lakes…anywhere there is a reflection.
This is the whole “energy” of leftist dogma. Socialism, Communism, leftism…all stem from the unholy alliance of those who fail being led by those who teach failure. Leftist academics are those who ordinarily can’t “do”, so they amble into teaching/preaching the gospel of failure. “We” are down…because “THEY” are up.
America and Israel are successful free market democracies. That makes them targets for losers and failures. Jews are particularly successful. That makes “them” a “them”.
In an extraordinary twist of cultural fate…Jews have an almost genetically wired need to feel guilty about their successes and respond to the losers and failures arguments…such that…they are inclined to take up their cause. AGAINST their own self-interest. This is fascinating, while it is completely irrational.
Compassion overcomes self-protection. They feed the fire against them. Name me one other “tribe” of people…on this planet…who would do such a thing, in such overwhelming numbers and with such predictability? None.
These are a special people. And the perfect storm of hatred against them, the Vichysoiss of Vitriol, this Mulligan’s Stew of Anti-Semitism…deserves to be put down. In the clearest and most unambiguous terms.
Never again. Not in my name. Not now, not then, not tomorrow. Israel is our ONE true friend in the region. The honor of our nation demands that we protect her to the fullest extent of our powers and abilities.
And the Jewish people need a voice. They my only be a few million…but the billions of us who are good, decent, honest, loyal, men and women…need to simply make sure that the truth is told. The story of Israel and Jews is a beautiful one and it is in our hands to tell it.
Dear Dr. Hanson,
I second GGA of Dublin, Ohio’s comments 1000 percent. He spoke for me in every regard.
I, too, am exceedingly, exceedingly grateful for your commentary.
I have interested about 6 locals to your writings. They, too, eagerly read them, and I have bought and read most of your books.
Based on your writings, my study of Foote’s book on Grant’s campaign to take Vicksburg, and Lincoln’s search for a general, I feel that we in this country must disabuse ourselves of the drive for perfection and expand our tolerance for failure learning all the while the value of perseverance. One inquiry, given the present state of the art in technology and values, where in the history of nations has a Christian nation tried to establish a democracy and all that that means in a Muslim nation? Again, where has what the U.S. is now trying to do, been tried and accomplished in a Muslim land?
Does anyone know to what degree the Iranian election is “rigged”?
It’s very simple, really. If the Jewish state is criticised on grounds all other countries are not, then it’s antisemitism. And if falsehoods are propagated in support of this criticism, then it’s also blood libel.
Dr. Hanson,
While your books and columns concerning the military receive the most press, (perhaps deservedly so: I haven’t read them yet) your books on agriculture, which highlight the demise of family farming and alludes to what we as a nation have lost due to that death, should be required reading at universities, particularly urban classrooms. Indeed, “The Land Was Everything” and still is.
As a reader of those two “unhinged” websites, Lew Rockwell/American Conservative, as well as your own, which I presume is properly hinged; I find legitimate questions raised by “isolationists”. Why do we have troops in well over a hundred countries around the world, many of which seem to despise us? Why does the US spend half a trillion dollars a year, not including the off-budget combat commitments, to fund our “defense”, while at the same time allowing the equivalent of a division of illegal immigrants to occupy whole counties, particularly in your part of the nation? Perhaps 150,000 troops along our southern border if not in Mexico proper would better serve our security. As we roll towards a nine trillion dollar national debt and the dollar starts to shake a bit, perhaps we should be debating the cost in blood and treasure of our commitments around the world.
The Arab states, and the Muslim world in general have had at least half a millennia to embrace reason over theocracy, equality over patriarchy, enlightenment over 8th century repression, and have in general rejected those options at every turn. There are heroic Arabs who are risking everything in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere to turn the Muslim tide against modernity, but they are small rocks dropped into a big pond. We should not abandon them now, but a sober reassessment as to what is possible in the Middle East is surely in order. The oil will flow regardless. The Middle East has little else to offer the world and they cannot control where oil goes anymore than you can control where your raisins and fruit end up.
How about a public debate between yourself and a proponent of “isolationism” who is of equal intellectual and public standing? Not sure who that would be exactly, Congressman Ron Paul perhaps? Pat Buchanan, Lew Rockwell? In any case it would be interesting and informative as opposed to debating an intellectually bankrupt and rapidly imploding Left, i.e. Arianna Airhead, or whoever she was. Some of us are beginning to wonder whether the rest of the world is worth any more valiant efforts of young men and women who may well return to a bankrupt nation. GDP based on borrowed money isn’t the same as wealth, much like frantic activity isn’t the same as productivity.
Israel is the new South Africa. That is Israel sees itself as part of the modern West but parts of the West dont believe it meets the standards.
In particular the the settlement policy pursued by Likud from the early 80′s onward is seen as especially bad. What are Victors views on the settlement programme.
(Note: I am a fan of Victors writing).