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 RetweetVDH: When Cynicism Meets Fanaticism

Fri, Mar 31, 2006 at 9:58:50 am PST

Another excellent column that cuts right through the left’s cloud of unknowing, by Victor Davis Hanson: When Cynicism Meets Fanaticism.

Opponents of the war in Iraq, both original critics and the mea culpa recent converts, have made eight assumptions. The first six are wrong, the last two still unsettled.

1. Saddam was never connected to al Qaeda, the perpetrators of 9/11.

2. There was no real threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

3. The United Nations and our allies were justifiably opposed on principle to the invasion.

4. A small cabal of neoconservative (and mostly Jewish) intellectuals bullied the administration into a war that served Israel’s interest more than our own.

5. Saddam could not be easily deposed, or at least he could not be successfully replaced with a democratic government.

6. The architects of this war and the subsequent occupation are mostly inept (“dangerously incompetent”) — and are exposed daily as clueless by a professional cadre of disinterested journalists.

7. In realist terms, the benefits to be gained from the war will never justify the costs incurred.

8. We cannot win.

Read the whole thing...

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38 comments

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1 Killer Tomato  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:00:16am

As usual, VDH is spot on.

2 Earth2moonbat  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:00:39am
3. The United Nations and our allies were justifiably opposed on principle to the invasion.

Yeah.

3 Indefatigable  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:00:49am

VDH:

One of the sane men in insane times.

4 wargammer2005  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:01:41am

OT:

from Fox News
iran tests a stealth mirv missile:

[Link: www.foxnews.com...]

5 wargammer2005  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:03:21am

the UN and our "allies" were opposed for justifiable reasons?

like oil-for-food?
and all the other bribes that have been discovered?

WOW?

6 braverutherford  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:04:47am

op-ed pieces like this make me wonder why we don't run VDH on a regular basis. we only get him when kathleen parker's on vacation.

7 zombie  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:05:24am

When Condi wins in '08, will she have the good sense to appoint him Director of White House Communications?

8 Doug  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:06:20am

I still laugh when thinking about VDH talking to Hugh Hewitt about Michael Ware of SLIME magazine. VDH innocently (but to the point) asks "is this a professional journalist?"

LOL!

9 photon cowboy  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:09:40am

I work with a useful idiot That loves then U N almost as much as he loves Hillary. When shown information such as thishe gets bright red but still does not let facts get in the way of his thought process. BUSH LIED ! It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

10 WriterMom  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:12:58am
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice — no Jews there, just plenty of hard-headed veterans who are not easily hoodwinked by supposedly clever Straussians in the shadows.

So funny!

11 jamgarr  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:18:14am

VDH rocks

12 JammieWearingFool  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:22:18am

I think some wireless gremlin ate my last comment.

Oh well.

Here I sit in Montreal, it's about 70 degrees (whatever Celsius) and I'm stuck in a conference room, desperately craving a Molson Ex.

13 Silhouette  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:32:03am
As for the eighth complaint that we cannot win (or “the war is lost”), the verdict is still in the future and depends mostly on us.

Our military cannot be defeated by either the Islamists or their autocratic supporters.

The only way we can lose is to defeat ourselves, whether it be the anti-American left actively attacking from within or negative "woe is us" from the rest making us lose heart and give up.

14 Necklace of Shoes  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:32:19am

When you lay out the journalists lies you see they a hoping we fail so they can report about it.

15 hiker  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:34:22am

VDH sure sets it out, doesn't he?

16 WriterMom  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:35:22am

#12 JWF

Definitely go to Old Montreal-just lovely, and you can bring your own wine at dinner.

17 jewaii  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:36:49am

VDH in '08

18 JammieWearingFool  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:47:49am

WriterMom,

Went over there for dinner last night at Gibby's, recommended by loppyd. Was most excellent.

19 rayra[deleted]  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:48:44am
20 loppyd  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:51:12am

JammieWearingFool

Did you save me a pickle?

21 rayra[deleted]  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:51:44am
22 rayra[deleted]  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 8:53:25am
23 WriterMom  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 9:00:37am

Jammie

Montreal smoked meats are DIVINE...their bagels are like pastry, though..

24 easy  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 9:04:10am

Iraq’s citizenry joins fight against terrorism

“One measure of what is happening [in Iraq] is to note things that are not happening,” said U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday. “Admittedly, that's a difficult thing to do. It's far easier to report about a bomb that goes off than to note a bomb that doesn't. A car bomb that kills Iraqis outside a police recruiting station makes for a clearly understandable story compared to the fact that hundreds of Iraqis volunteer the next day, to step up to volunteer despite that attack.”


Seventy-four percent of those surveyed in Gallup's 2005 confidence poll said they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the military - more than in a full range of other government, religious, economic, medical, business and news organizations

.
Count me in that number

25 Merovign  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 9:05:06am

#19 rayra

Democrats spent 1/21/93-1/20/01 operating military combat aircraft over northern and southern Iraq, dropping ordnance as required. For those EIGHT years, there were no significant nationally-organized calls to abandon / withdraw from Iraq.

Actually, the Libertarians (who later largely succumbed to BDS, quite sadly) were pretty loud (well, as loud as a mouse can roar) about this.

Once BDS set in in the "organized" Libertarian movement (to which I can no longer belong for these reasons), the theme changed from "don't bomb the people and leave the dictator in power" to "don't remove the dictator." Which is madness, given the history of the situation.

Unfortunately there is a bit of "oppose ANYONE in power" in the Libertarian movement, which makes those who have that look a bit crazy around admin changes as they get whiplash changing their rhetoric.

Not all of us are quite that bipolar. :)

26 alegrias  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 9:22:19am

#19 Rayra

Democrats spent 1/21/93-1/20/01 operating military combat aircraft over northern and southern Iraq, dropping ordnance as required. For those EIGHT years, there were no significant nationally-organized calls to abandon / withdraw from Iraq. Their 'leading lights' were the first to utter the phrase 'regime change'. That fool Madeliene Albright was one of them. As was President Clinton. Yet the whole Democratic Janus now bemoans that effort. A pox on their houses

Exactly--Democrats PREFER pointless sieges and stalemates that go on for years and years changing nothing except grinding down our military and budgets on the backburner while no one is watching. (Detente, anyone?)

Remember former Pres. Clinton's promise we would be in Bosnia ONE YEAR. Bwahahaha. Eleven years and 50 or 60 billions later, where's the Democrat outrage over Clinton's 11 year long invasion/okkupayshun/bombardment of "innocents"? Lying liberal hypocrites.

27 Dianna  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 9:35:09am
There remains this last unknown — how well can a liberal democracy, in its greatest age of affluence, leisure, and self-critical reflection, still fight a distant war against emissaries of the Dark Ages who seek to behead apostates, blow up democrats, and silence with death writers, journalists, and cartoonists.

As always, VDH articulates what I've been thinking. I've been wondering if we aren't spending too much time in self-critical reflection.

28 Golem Akbar  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 10:41:14am

VDH ought to be required reading for everyone, on both sides of the war. The MSM needs to print this article. Short, sweet, and spot spot (2x) on.

29 rayra[deleted]  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 10:44:31am
30 jOjOEofArcadia  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 10:50:56am

Victor Davis Hanson has been the leading light concerning ME diagnoses and prognoses since well before 09/11/2001, but most notably afterwards, as many Americans looked for reasonable ways to come to grips with the changes in the U.S. relations with ME countries and peoples. His is a voice of sanity, reason, and even-handedness in our politically-correct, diversity-driven aglomeration of thinking patterns that won't seem to go away, quickly or slowly, to my liking. Long-live VDH! Hurrah! Hurrah!

31 Dianna  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 11:08:24am

#29 rayra

You're right.

The worst thing about this administration is that, while doing the right thing, they've been inarticulate about both the reasons and the deeper cause. This is, I think, the first time the United States has faced a threat to its existence when the governing party lacked eloquence.

This troubles me, since I see this struggle as equal in its importance to the Civil War, and certainly of greater significance than World War One.

32 Raven1  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 11:20:44am

Conservatives are from Earth.
Liberals are from Stupider.

33 Raven1  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 11:22:26am

Coservatives are from earth.
Liberals are from Uranus.

34 Golem Akbar  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 11:29:55am

#31 Dianna:

The worst thing about this administration is that, while doing the right thing, they've been inarticulate

You're right! What VDH does is to express the truth as simply and succintly as anyone could. That's why I enjoy reading him. He should be hired by the Administration to train the spokes-team on communication to the media. It could change everything.

35 JammieWearingFool  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 11:47:16am
20 loppyd 3/31/2006 10:51AM PST

JammieWearingFool

Did you save me a pickle?

No pickles, but I swiped a pocketful of bacon bits.

36 FrogMarch  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 12:10:32pm

Leftists are assholes.

37 Merovign  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 5:20:38pm

#35 JammieWearingFool

No pickles, but I swiped a pocketful of bacon bits.

Iiiit's BACON!

:)

38 mattm  Fri, Mar 31, 2006 6:47:43pm

#7

That would really get the libs mad if it happened.


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