111 Comments

1. Gaffe Prices:

Gee, russia was a victim too, of BigBadEvilBush™, the dumb guy.

Sep 26, 2009 - 5:29 pm 2. Cris:

It had a bad habit of lecturing Japan, embargoing Japan, but not proving to Japan that it had the force to deter Japan and the willingness to enforce its edicts;

This seems like the really scary part these days…

Sep 26, 2009 - 5:56 pm 3. Ron Kean:

Among the reasons that the USA mobilized so quickly and so well in WW2 are both the media and Hollywood who drove the patriotic fervor.

Then there were the old hands who managed the effort in 1917, just 24 years before, among them Henry Ford who converted his assembly lines quickly, antisemitism notwithstanding.

George W. Bush led the USA to victories because of a belief in freedom and democracy. He had mature advisers who were seasoned on the inter-national stage.

Obama has non of this. No good ole boys. Obama’s media and his Hollywood deserve the title of the ‘hate America left. Who will ever forget, ‘…never been proud…’, ‘AmeriKKKa…’, ‘…downright mean…’.

Will those in the Whitehouse set aside their hatred for all that came before them and fight the big fight if attacked? It’s a shame that anyone has doubts about that.

Sep 26, 2009 - 7:31 pm 4. Victor Davis Hanson: The Past Is Not Quite Past | tomllewis:

[...] Via Pajamas Media. [...]

Sep 26, 2009 - 7:45 pm 5. Minerva:

The Russians won’t be helping us regarding Iran.

Sep 26, 2009 - 9:46 pm 6. robert curry:

“It may be that in the Russian view, now that an unpredictable Bush is gone, things are looking up.”
…and that may also be the view of the Chinese, the Iranians and the jihadists.

If being perceived as weak invites attack, it is clear that Obama has America on a dangerous course.

Sep 26, 2009 - 10:03 pm 7. Nelson Frink:

Mr Hanson,
Informative, insightful, eloquent and entertaining as usual. What I wouldn’t give to sit around some evening and hear your ideas, adventures or stories and share ideas over a beer or glass of wine…
One thought that came to me while reading this was how we take so much for granted in life. For instance, when we drive up to the Sierra from my home in the Sacramento Valley, my boys can’t appreciate how sweet it is to drive up the modern, smooth, graded 4-lane stretch that bypasses the town of Rough and Ready on the old Hwy 20 that was basically a paved stagecoach road. The world we live in today would be unimaginably worse if America and Britain hadn’t stepped up to the immense challenge of fighting WWII. The same goes for what Lincoln did.
It’s understandable that many Americans felt the war on terrorism was won and we could relax a bit and save money and precious lives of our soldiers by backing off. That isn’t necessarily taking for granted what has been accomplished. However, it’s scary that leaders are now gambling that the security gained from past vigilance gives them breathing room to play “the good guys”. Appeasing the real bad guys in the world may get them through the next election cycle without any new wars or major escalations, but I fear the future cost to world security and peace will be significant.

Sep 26, 2009 - 10:06 pm 8. gs:

VDH, maybe you should make that course & others available via Internet or DVD. I wouldn’t purchase it at the moment, but I would when I stop living off capital.

Would there be a demand? That your overseas tour is filling up so quickly suggests there might.

Sep 26, 2009 - 10:14 pm 9. Jimmy J.:

I was a boy of 9 in 1942 when the war was not going well for us. I asked my grandfather if we were going to win. His answer was, “Yes, we’re working like the devil to produce the guns, planes, and ships our boys need. When they get them then the outcome is not in doubt.” I asked him how he could be so sure. He said, “Our boys know what they’re fighting for, freedom. And they also are able to take the inititiative. If an officer goes down, the senior non-come will stand up in his place. If that non-com goes down, the next senior man will stand up. The Japanese and Germans don’t know how to do that. They are from totalitarian countries and don’t know how to take the initiative.” He knew whereof he spoke and I have never forgotten his words. Because of our “boys” and all those men and women working three shifts a day producing beans, bullets, tanks, and airplanes we did what few would believe possible. But we didn’t just win the war in Europe and the Pacific, we rebuilt our defeated enemies and made friends with them. All that when, for a period of time, we were the only nation with the atom bomb and a means to deliver it anywhere in the world. A less upstanding nation would have used the bomb to further its own interests, but we didn’t. All that and much more is why I am proud to be an American.

We’re stumbling around in the dark now, but we still have the core values to turn things around and become a sure footed, proud nation again.

Sep 26, 2009 - 10:26 pm 10. Pajamas Media » The Past Is Not Quite Past:

[...] Read the entire piece here. [...]

Sep 26, 2009 - 10:43 pm 11. Van den Berge:

Very real and painful analysis. The ailing economy gives this Geo political context a more dour dimension. The Global anti America crowd now really thinks that the US empire will collapse. The US doesn’t have the political will power nor the financial means to engage in military adventure in the Middle East or Eastern Europe or where ever. Obama is trying very hard to make the academic idea of a ‘Post American’ world a reality. While a decade ago the US was the dominant economic, cultural and military power, it now becomes just one of many nations or the last man standing, depending on your view of the world.
What is lacking from the conservative movement in the US is an competing grand vision and strategy for the notion of the ‘Post American’ world.
I’m a European and I clearly knows what is missing from the European context: everything. However in this new world order deeper ties are called for among Western nations. Western in the meaning of Samuel Huntington, i.e a deep cultural notion that clearly differs from Islamic, Orthodox and Sinic civilizations.
Paleo conservatism of a Buchanan is not the answer here. Renewed and deepened Atlantic ties are. I hope that US conservatives can focus on that and that Europeans conservatives start doing the same. The only positive effect of mass Islamic immigration in Western Europe is that a strong notion of nation and cultural identity has emerged. All forbidden concepts according to the post WW II European elite.
There is a bright future, but we need to be patient for the next round of elections.

Sep 26, 2009 - 11:17 pm 12. western canadian:

One day the weak performance of Mr Obama will bear fruit as an aggressive anti-US action by some sketchy nation. Then what?

Sep 26, 2009 - 11:20 pm 13. David Thomson:

There is little evidence indicating that Barack Obama ever seriously studied American history. On the contrary, he comes across overall as a poorly read and shallow human being. Obama has, for instance, clearly revealed his ignorance concerning the doctrine of American exceptionalism. This is probably the norm for most of the students graduating from Harvard University and other “elite” academic institutions. It gets worse at the second and third tier schools. The only thing Obama might know about WWII is that the United States government imprisoned Japanese-American citizens in concentration camps. Michelle Malkin’s arguments that these actions might be justified are not even given a hearing. Were the German and Japanese fascists truly a genuine threat? Not according to the postmodernist and blame America first professors who generally teach these courses. The United States is perceived to be the aggressor—especially if the other side is comprised of yellow skin people.

Sep 26, 2009 - 11:29 pm 14. T D:

There was a trust factor between the American people, American soldiers and their president. My parents, now conservative Republicans, thought the world of FDR–and still do. My dad still speaks with pride of being able to vote for FDR. My mother was a bit too young. (The same kind of deep trust was formed between the British and Churchill.

The leader has to have the vision and will to win–and the ability to show that the situation is serious. President Bush had that after 9/11. But, each day of safety at home and no sacrifice required of most families, ended up eroding that link of trust that leads peaceable men like my father and uncle to become willing warriors and even heroes.

One of the key failures of President Obama is that he doesn’t inspire even his supporters, much less the American public, to action.

Thank you, Professor Hanson, for this insightful history lesson.

Sep 27, 2009 - 12:33 am 15. kenny komodo:

I think it was Japanese Admiral Yamamoto who said, shortly after Pearl Harbor, that he was afraid that all the raid accomplished was to awaken a sleeping giant. Now Obambi has more or less done the same with conservatives. Just look at the number of tea parties, the attendees at town hall meetings who were prepared with questions and would not be put off. Look at the tens or maybe hundreds of thousands that went to Washington DC on 9-12. The “silent majority” is no longer silent. Now we have to make sure that we maintain this energy level, keep engaged, and boot Obambi and his slavishly drooling boot heel licking Marxist and fascist acolytes out of the WH, out of the congress and into the pages of history where they will just be a footnote.

Sep 27, 2009 - 1:02 am 16. Joseph:

Oh Victor how I love your bringing up WWII.
Let us discuss Unit 731. The Japanese bio-warfare unit in Manchukuo. “MacArthur secretly granted immunity to the physicians of Unit 731 in exchange for providing America with their research on biological warfare.” These sweet hearts make most at Gitmo look like children who torture flies. Most of the Gitmo inmates are horrible to be sure, but not even in the same league as the doctors in Unit 731. These guys didn’t just murder Chinese but also U.S. prisoners of war and in horrible ways. Mengele is small time compared to these guys. But the end justifies the means I guess.
How ’bout the father of the U.S. Space Program, Wernher von Braun. The father also of the V1 and V2 who’s inventions required extermination camps to produce them. “On August 15, 1944, von Braun wrote a letter to Albin Sawatzki, manager of the V-2 production, admitting that he personally picked labor slaves from the Buchenwald concentration camp, who, he admitted 25 years later in an interview, had been in a “pitiful shape”. But I guess he redeemed himself by helping us.
Let us not forget Klaus Barbie the Butcher of Lyon who “…became an agent for the 66th Detachment of the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC).” After working for us he redeemed himself by helping Israel. “While in Bolivia, Barbie managed a company that diverted Belgian and Swiss arms to Israel while Israel was still under a post-Six-Day War international arms embargo. A report in the Israeli press alleges that Barbie also had frequent dealings with Israel concerning supplies of Israeli arms to Latin American countries and “various underground organizations.” Don’t hate the sinner hate the sin.
Today we make deals with dictators (Hosni Mubarak) and corrupt drug dealers (Hamid Karzai). We even need Vladimir Putin who helps us supply all those troops in Afghanistan.
So perhaps Obama is dealing with devils but in doing so he follows in a long history of us doing deals with devils. I know the argument, at least we got something and Obama is giving away the store and getting nothing in return and maybe you are right but it still stinks and at least you should remind us of Jesus’ famous admission “Let those without sin cast the first stone …”

Sep 27, 2009 - 1:04 am 17. On "American Ajax":

I like your simultaneous discussion of current events and recent history. It does help people realize that, as Faulkner said, “the past isn’t dead; it’s not even past.”

Also reminds me of your recent “American Ajax” piece discussing Warren Kozak’s biography of General Curtis LeMay. Modern Americans seem horrified by the idea of employing overwhelming force to resolve a conflict. Even President Obama has remarked, “I’m not interested in victory.”

Obama’s ambiguity seems to favor limited engagement. But as LeMay himself would point out, that leads to long conflicts that consume resources and lives.

As you mentioned in the LeMay essay, President Kennedy liked having LeMay in change of the Air Force. “Everybody knows how he feels. That’s a good thing right now.” Unfortunately for modern Americans, everybody knows how President Obama feels. That’s a bad thing right now.

Sep 27, 2009 - 2:32 am 18. Sulla:

Power abhors a vacuum. Our “reasonableness” will be judged by our friends as a sure indication of weakness, and by our enemies as a definite opportunity to expand influence. Our opponents are testing us to find out how far they can push us.

Sep 27, 2009 - 3:01 am 19. The means, the motive, and the opportunity « AMPONTAN:

[...] then offers six logical reasons why those “intelligent militarists” thought they might get away with [...]

Sep 27, 2009 - 3:11 am 20. Ken Besig:

Dear Dr. Hansen,
I fear that you give Obama too much benefit of the doubt, that is, you grant that he is trashing America at home and in foreign affairs because he is either misinformed, misguided, or naive or some combination of the three.
I differ with you entirely. I see Obama, and especially his wife, as resentful of America and her success, and malevolent towards most of America’s allies. Obama was nurtured on anti American sentiments by his parents and his mentors. He actively sought out individuals like the Reverend Wright and Van Jones because they both preached anti Americanism, but also because they thoroughly believed in the Black Nationalist Liberation ideology, much of which is deeply antagonistic towards both White People and especially Jews. This ideology also lauds the Third World and teaches that White Westerners have oppressed, suppressed, murdered, robbed, and pillaged the Third World in order to provide themselves with a good, rich life and a high standard of living while leaving the Third World mired in poverty, ignorance, despotism, hunger, and misery. Indeed, Obama and especially his wife, believe that American White People have largely done the same thing in America itself to the minorities living there, hence, Michelle Obama’s uncut and unabashed comment that when her husband was on his way to the nomination, it was the first time she was proud of America. The Obama’s, their Tsars, and their advisors despise America and the alliances that America has with Israel, much of Eastern Europe, and any democratic English speaking state. Hence Obama’s cancelling the Eastern Europe missile shield and his appeasing of the despotic and aggressive Former Soviet Union.
Mr. Obama resents America and her success, his wife loathes the place, and most of his advisors and their subordinates are willing helpers in his attempt to destabilize America’s largely successful economic system and destroy any American leadership and influence in the International Community. Obama also seems to believe that he can sacrifice Israel to the Iranian nuclear missiles and not have any fallout in America. Well, when the Iranians, God Forbid, finish with Israel, you can be sure that they will come after America and the West next, thanks to President Barack Hussein Obama. You know the song, Barack Hussien Obama, mmm, mmm, mmm?

Sep 27, 2009 - 4:03 am 21. formwiz:

Great post, doc, and very apt. Obama’s short-sightedness combines the worst of Jimmy Carter and Neville Chamberlain, particularly since he is accepting as holy writ Democrat party propaganda, as well as the teachings of his sainted mother and her successors (Wright, Ayers, etc.).

On another note, you forget that the Marines were only a minority part of the story in the Pacific. Guadalcanal, as well as the rest of the Solomons and New Guinea could not have been won without the US Army. XIV Corps (25th and Americal divisions) landed in October ‘42 on the ‘Canal and I Corps (32nd and 41st divisions) was flown into Papua the following month. As a complement to your Marine studies, may I suggest a book by an old Marine, “American Caesar”?

Sep 27, 2009 - 4:27 am 22. Chileno:

As I’ve stated before, Obama’s foreign policy can best be described as “sacrificial appeasement,” where we are expected to sacrifice those who should be our friends, in the hopes of making peace with our enemies.

Thus:
- We sacrifice Israel to appease the Arabs.
- We sacrifice the Iranian protestors to appease the Ayatollahs.
- We sacrifice Honduras to appease Chavez.
- We sacrifice the Sudanese refugees to appease the Sudanese government/the Arab League.
- We sacrifice the Cuban dissidents/exiles to appease Fidel/Raul & Co.
- And finally: we sacrifice our Polish/Czech allies to appease the Russians.

It all makes sense when you see it through B.O.’s looking glass. Pity he doesn’t realize that “sacrificial appeasement” will simply leave us with fewer friends and bolder enemies.

Sep 27, 2009 - 4:28 am 23. myra:

So, Dr. H, we should think outside of the box and bomb Japan?

Sep 27, 2009 - 5:16 am 24. eon:

An excellent and insightful analysis by Dr. Hanson. However, I must respectfully disagree with the statement that Putin and president Obama’s shared antipathy was only toward George W. Bush.

All of The Self-Exalted One’s statements make it clear that his problem is with America as a whole. Rather like the observation made by a well-known journalist, Obama is one who does not love, or even particularly like, the United States; he is, rather, in love with the “vision” of what he believes he can transform the United States into.

This is not exactly a new mindset amongst radicals (on either end of the political spectrum), but I believe that Mr. Obama may be the most blatant example we have even had in the Oval Office. This in comparison to the likes of Woodrow Wilson, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Richard Nixon, James Earl Carter, and most recently Hillary Clinton. (I disregard William J., as he was clearly in it for the same reason that he was “into” anti-war protests and being governor of Arkansas- that being easy access to women.)

I’m reading Eric Hoffer’s “The True Believer” just now, and Hoffer defines those who become motivators of mass movements as either “men of words”, “fanatics” or “men of action”.

Those who value words are the ones who early on decide to strike out at their society because they feel it is somehow immoral, or simply not ceding them the power they believe their superior intellect entitles them to. (Academic radicals, who oppose the GWAIT and support Obama en masse, fall into this category.)

Those who value action are the ones who actually are capable of making a movement’s goals work in practical terms. They tend to be more likely to “compromise”, on the grounds that, as Marshal Molotov once observed, “Perfect is the first enemy of good enough” (in reference to the T-34 tank). The Democratic Party has had a dearth of such reasonable men and women for over four decades; when one does show up, he or she tends to be rejected rather violently. (Consider what happened to Senator Joseph Lieberman.)

The third category, the fanatics, are those who become leaders over the other two types. They are the ones who can demagogue issues, sway crowds, promise people anything, and make their crusades matters of “social conscience”. The Democratic party has a paucity of these types, ranging from Nancy Pelosi to Harry Reid to the President himself.

The trap that fanatics fall into, and which this President has also apparently stumbled into, is mistaking their beliefs for reality. Fanatics tend to be immune to facts to an even greater degree than most “reformers”, and are often willing to take steps to insulate themselves and their like-minded followers from any evidence which might conflict with their theories and grand plans.

While this is an excellent way to form and lead a movement to gain power, in the actual wielding of power it is invariably catastrophic. A leader cannot afford to be insulated from reality. Those who do not understand this are not qualified to be leaders.

I do not believe that President Obama, or indeed any member of his Party’s (presently the nation’s) upper echelon, understand this at all. Nor are they interested in learning it. They have their dogma, and to them nothing else matters.

President Putin has his dogma, as well. The difference is, his is based on what he knows he can do- because the only power that could stop him is run by a man who either does not grasp the concept of Putin’s dogma, or may even think that it is a good idea.

Neither one bodes well for this country, Europe, the MidEast, or indeed the world as a whole.

clear ether

eon

Sep 27, 2009 - 5:41 am 25. Ben:

Would your course on WW II someday be available to the public via cd or podcast or in print? I am sure it would be a lecture worth listening to or reading, just as your insightful columns are definitely always a must-read.
Thank you for your work.

Sep 27, 2009 - 5:56 am 26. whyamInotsurprised?:

yes, our Dear Leader is sorely ignorant of history especially military history. I think he is likely to claim doctoral credentials on “race” relations or “black” history. But every time he opens his mouth, well, evidence to the contrary comes pouring forth.

As far as WWII, the old drivers of resource limitations, and plain old inferiority complexes (read “bullies”) causes most wars. The Japanese military mis-read of America was due to the rise of industrial prowess which unused for better part of a decade during the depression was due for a make over and a workforce ready to unleash pent up energies in a righteous cause.

Today however, with a largely knowledge based economy, the sissification of male society, and the failure of the educational system, i.e. success of liberalism, the ability recognition of evil/danger in the world and the willingness to do something about it besides talk has been largely lost. And now with a limp wristed President who thinks of himself as a victim and a representative of victims not just in America but around the world, well, hell, he isn’t about to make war on those that the big, bad USA has spat upon throughout our history.

But if nothing else is to be learned from the study of history, it is the quote from George Santayana, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Our President has not only not learned but never even tried to learn about a broader history than what was a burr under his saddle.

Sep 27, 2009 - 6:02 am 27. pelaut:

Really excellent precis of what went on then and how it explains what will go on in the future because of what’s going on now.

All the children dancing with the Huns in the palace haven’t read one page of any history. If their cohorts read your superb analysis, VDH, they will assume it is ex post facto reasoning just to buck =:obama. You can’t get through to them while they’re rapping and dancing.

Lamentably, we must wait for and suffer the denouement — or go Galt. I hope the ’silent majority’, those that let these creeps triumph, stay and reap the consequences.

Sep 27, 2009 - 6:06 am 28. ~Paules:

Re: The inexplicable nature of America’s industrial capacity.

I can recall a documentary about the creation of what would become the U.S. army jeep. The military established a list of requirements for the vehicle and then turned the project over to the private sector for bidding. The winning prototype was literally cobbled together by four men in a barn over the course of a few days. What does it say about America? That a free and self-sufficient people combined with a bit of native talent can rise to any challenge.

Take the above illustration and add to it a national industrial capacity that needed only a bit of pump priming to get it moving. Place the entire enterprise in the hands of people like Henry Ford and the “sleeping giant awakes filled with a terrible resolve.” Backed by a naturally pugnacious populace, the monster becomes unstoppable.

Inexplicable? Not really, just unforeseen by most. Albert Speer certainly knew it and so did Yamamoto. And we are still the same people today who put a man on the moon in less than a decade and faced down and defeated the Soviet Union. All we need is the right challenge and a leader. Leadership seems to be conspicuously missing at the moment.

Sep 27, 2009 - 6:22 am 29. JVDeLong:

Another example from, I think, A.J.P. Taylor: How could Hitler possibly think that England would go to war over an indefensible and strategically useless Poland when it had been so ready to abandon Czechoslovakia, a very useful ally?

My shelves have a book called Japan’s Decision for War: Records of the 1941 Policy Conferences. It has been too many years since I read it for me to comment on whether it supports VD’s hypotheses, but it is about to get a look.

Sep 27, 2009 - 6:39 am 30. JL:

“NATO is toothless and would only be embarrassed if it promised guarantees of Article V protection to a Ukraine, since no Belgian or Italian would be willing to die for Kiev.”

Excellent observation. Remember that Turkey, a NATO member, denied US troops access to Iraq through Turkey.

Sep 27, 2009 - 6:41 am 31. homero:

Yet Obama did a lot of damage in the meantime, demagoguing the facility and besmirching the careful work of those who must guard the sort of people who, as we saw the last week in the U.S., are trying to kill us.

YES this is the real Obama, hid did a lot of damage. and he has just started.

good piece VDH, no apologies or waiting for obama to move to the centre.

obama is a narcissist and a marxist and following Saul Alinsky’s rules for radicals manifesto.

Sep 27, 2009 - 7:07 am 32. George S.:

Jimmy J.

“Our boys know what they’re fighting for, freedom. And they also are able to take the inititiative. If an officer goes down, the senior non-come will stand up in his place. If that non-com goes down, the next senior man will stand up. The Japanese and Germans don’t know how to do that. They are from totalitarian countries and don’t know how to take the initiative.”

your post is excellent.

alas the education system has been trying hard to remove this thinking from future generations. I think your generation was the last to really be educated and live this way. THERE WAS NO VICTIM MENTALITY THEN. and welfare was not a career choice.

Sep 27, 2009 - 7:14 am 33. Kirk Petersen:

Myra, did you mean “bomb Iran”? I’m not advocating that we do so, but a plausible case could be made for taking out the nuke facilities. But the idea of bombing Japan is just loopy, even as satire.

Sep 27, 2009 - 7:15 am 34. Libertyship46:

What I never really understood about the Russians supplying nuclear technology (and possibly nuclear weapons technology) to the Iranians is why they would feel comfortable seeing a fanatically Muslim nation on their border armed with nuclear weapons? After all, the Russians have their own problems with Muslims and Chechnya is still an open sore that won’t go away. Why would the Russians think that the Iranians wouldn’t supply a small nuclear weapon to some “opressed” Muslim group inside Russia? After all, it was Muslim terrorists that attacked and killed innocent people at a theater in Moscow not long ago, so why can’t it happen again? And how would Putin look to his own people if they see that the very country they assisted in getting nuclear weapons (i.e., Iran) ended up using some of those weapons against Russia? Perhaps if the West, and especially the United States, promoted the idea more that the radical Muslim terrorists in Iran posed more of a problem to Russia rather than the United States, some Russians (especially in the military) might start listening. And if Putin loses the support of what’s left of their military, he’s done.

As for the World War II analogies, I can certainly see your point. However, I’ve always thought that a major war between the United States and Iran would start mostly like World War I, not World War II. During the Cuban Missile Crisis President Kennedy used Barbara Tuchman’s “The Guns of August” to help him navigate through that crisis. He believed (and rightly so) that a war could be started between the United States and Russia simply through miscalculation and by sheer accident. One side would escalate the situation, not believing that the other side would actually respond in kind. These sets of miscalculations could eventually lead to nuclear war and they almost did. Iran may want nuclear weapons and is gambling that the United States won’t have the nerve (or the stamina) to stop them. If they are right, they win. If they are wrong, that would be one hell of a miscalculation and could plunge the world into a nuclear war nobody wants. The only difference this time around is that if you have religious fanatics in control of nuclear weapons, fanatics that would actually embrace death rather than avoid it, then you have the potential of going all the way to nuclear war. I hope Obama understands this. He would do well to read the Guns of August and examine the Cuban Missile Crisis because I think that’s where we’re heading. Only this time, the other side may not really care if they lose, and that’s what he (as well as the American public) should be concerned with most.

Sep 27, 2009 - 7:22 am 35. EscapeVelocity:

The Blame America First Crowd is running US foreign policy.

What could go wrong?

Allies to the Evil Imperial America are being thrown under the bus as fast as Obama’s “typical white” grandmother.

Black Liberation Theology, New Left Identity Victim Politics Alinsky Radicalism, Cloward Piven Strategy, on a solid foundation of Islamic Atheism.

The Messiah!

Sep 27, 2009 - 7:26 am 36. David S:

The war mongering of Bush was hardly an effective response to the emerging threats facing the USA. Instead of using our resources to promote our national interest, we have become embroiled in ancient tribal and religious conflicts in a region where we have little to gain, and much to lose.

Obama is embarking on a reinvention of America’s international reputation, which is much needed after the punishment inflicted under Bush. At the same time, he is taking practical and realistic steps to push for a realignment in international relations. Rather than the “with us or against us” rhetoric of Bush, Obama is working on the basis of building consensus.

In the long term, the strategy of Obama is the only one that can succeed. Without international cooperation and agreement, the US cannot achieve her long term strategic goals. Extricating our military from Iraq and Afghanistan is likely to take many years, and cost us a great deal more blood and treasure. Inviting more of the same is a fool’s game, and one that Obama is determined not play.

Going it alone is a recipe for foreign policy disaster, as made clear by Bush & Co. While Bush was starting a war in Iraq for his own purposes, he took the eye off of the ball. Afghanistan turned against us, Iraq became a quagmire, and North Korea and Iran both made more progress toward nuclear weapons than under any previous administration.

Given the situation he faces, Obama is taking the right steps to restore American standing in the world, and refocus our military and diplomatic efforts on protecting the vital interests of Americans, rather than corporations. It is a welcome change, and a hopeful one.

Peace.

DS

Sep 27, 2009 - 7:41 am 37. misanthropicus:

Terrible, terrible, irresponsible leadership – home affairs and international politics.

But even sadder than the situation of Afghanistan (in which the US president shows a complete lack of courage in facing reality and ability for taking hard decisions), is the fact that these deep character flaws and incompence were fully visible in mister Obama during the election that brought him in the WH – yet they were completely ignored.

I, and so many others still bitterly cling to the idea that such a thing like SOLID REALITY EXISTS and that that REALITY will not change a iota because a narcissitic airbag gives countless interviews to fawning liberals about how he’ll work to change world. (I just remind you that last year, at the election’s time, Obama’s hedging and belated and convoluted response to the Georgia situation clearly showed that he’s far, far from being Jack Kennedy).

Yet, the liberals and the hope’n change herd managed to inflict their views as to how the world is, and now we are beginning to reap the results of this transformative presidency.

Yes, here we are: McCrystal’s (Mullen’s and Petraeus’ as well), requests will not be honored, and as days pass, the situation in Afghanistan is worse and worse, and our troops safety and morale is sagging – and guess what, we are still not liked around (Chavez, Castro, Gadaffi, Mumia Jabal and the New Times Editorial board aside).

And, to crown Obama’s accomplishments in foreign affairs, after foolishly granting a victory to Russia in the missiles shield situation (the weird idea beiond this being that Russia might, maybe, possibly, mollify the Iranians), just hours ago Iran launched a rocket – “We shall bear witness”, is this the answer again?

Home, the unemployment across the country is just the same, and it looks that the youth unemployment actually spiked to dramatic heights (%50!!!!!) – situation which is rightfully credited to Obama’s crew, all either Wall Stret/ big finance types, or lefty academics who can see an economy only as a monolithical arrangement, run by government, and who ignore and despise the MILLIONS of small businesess (100 or less employees) which are actually maintaining this giant, America, ticking.

But haven’t, along history, the small business owners always been the chief target for the left? So, Obama’s The Deliberative (himself nothing but an arrogant parvenu), inspiration in economical matters comes from Larry Summers and Bill Ayres types and the consequeences are here – we could better this situation if we follow the Cuban model, probably.

Is there a single positive thing that happened in the life of this country in the past 9 months that can be credited to this transformational presidency?

And does one need to be a conspiracy type to wonder whether what we actually assist is not just partisan incompetence, but an effective act of sedition on the lines of the “unconventional warfare” doctrine, aiming to weaken America?

Sep 27, 2009 - 7:49 am 38. Robert Winkler Burke:

Doctor, You are a great seer of history’s patterns…

Pattern-Seers Ignored at Peril
By Robert Winkler Burke
Of inthatdayteachings.com
Copyright 9/01/09

It’s easy to see one thing,
One thing or another,
But to see evil patterns,
Or good, oh brother!

Well that’s really something,
Something worth noting,
The crowd hates such seers,
Crowds often voting…

Oft votes the crowd to ignore,
Stone or crucify the seer,
The seer sees the crowd to cliff,
Is getting nearer, NEARER!

The HELL you say!
Says the crowd to the prophet,
Anything you say now,
We will delight, DELIGHT to mock it!

Thus, the seer oft fails,
At this cruel and endless game,
But the cliff always wins,
When lemmings stay course same.

The most ancient pattern,
Of all, then, is this,
Crowds need love and hearken,
To true seers to get bliss.

But if cliff-bound crowds insist,
The pattern-seeing man is wrong,
Only tragic hell on earth,
And with it, pride, stay strong.

Sep 27, 2009 - 8:02 am 39. Booker T. Gain:

Dear Dr. Hansen,
I fear that you give Obama too much benefit of the doubt, that is, you grant that he is trashing America at home and in foreign affairs because he is either misinformed, misguided, or naive or some combination of the three.
I differ with you entirely. I see Obama, and especially his wife, as resentful of America and her success, and malevolent towards most of America’s allies.

I couldn’t agree more. You don’t become POTUS if you are naive.

Sep 27, 2009 - 8:08 am 40. cfbleachers:

VDH

I was wondering if you believed, as a general rule, in any of the following statements:

1)America was once teeming with self-made, rugged individualists, for whom an attack on their country would inspire in them a feeling of willingness to sacrifice nearly anything and everything they possessed to defend their nation;

2)America today is teeming with “screaming me-me’s”, self-absorbed and soft, incessantly looking for “the government” to give them a living, unwilling to earn, unwilling to sacrifice, unwilling to play the hero, but always willing to play the victim.

3)America was once nearly universal in its pride, was loyal to its allies, standing arm in arm with them against any foe…and toe to toe against such enemies if and when the time came.

4)America today grovels at the feet of anyone who says a harsh word about us, sniveling, bowing deeply, groveling and self-flagellating. We turn our backs on our friends to curry favor with our enemies. America today is willing to sweep under the rug all the filth of Communism, and even moreso…willing to air our “dirty laundry” by exclaiming a “need” to “apologize” for our anti-Communist predecessors.

5) We are in the middle of adopting, adapting and advancing Socialist-Communist “good will” around the globe…and the best way to speed this along, is to simultaneously denounce our past…and our past “transgressions”. If we admit we were “wrong”, then…they must have been “right”.

6)Given that past is prologue…now look at Israel, Honduras, Columbia, Eastern Europe etc., with a fresh set of eyes. Look at them through the eyes of Frank Marshall Davis. Look at them through the eyes of Carl Davidson. Look at them through the eyes of Jeremiah Wright. Look at them through the eyes of Robert Malley. Through the eyes of Zbigniew Brzezinski. Through the eyes of Ayers and Dohrn. Through the eyes of Sam Graham-Felsen. Through the eyes of Rashid Khalidi. Or the late Edward Said. Through the eyes of Louis Farrakhan. Through the eyes of Michael Moore.

7)When we are done with exercise in 6 above, repeat it…but now, look at America through those same eyes. Our friends are no longer to be treated as friends. And looking through those eyes…you might want to determine if you see America itself as a friend…or an enemy.

Sep 27, 2009 - 8:12 am 41. Harry Truman:

VDH, Please DO offer courses by DVD/ online. It is sorely needed. There is much to the spoken word. Now is the time at this late hour.

Imho the error is to ascribe benevolent if misguided motives to BHO. ( or Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Dodd et al for that matter)
The American people have unwittingly pulled a Trojan horse into DC, containing denizens of traitors who are driven to destroy this country.

Who are the puppeteers on the other end of that Blackberry? The Alinsky manifesto, Ayers ghostwriting “Dreams From My Father” etc, the agenda is all too clear.
“Cloward-Piven Strategy”
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6967

Sep 27, 2009 - 8:13 am 42. Suzi:

Awesome piece.
Question: Where the heck do you teach that they ALLOW you to tell the TRUTH of history? And can you somehow get Obama enrolled in that class?

If he’d been learning at the knee of those who’d ‘been there’, instead of from the America-hating mentors Frank Davis, Bill Ayers & Rev. Wright, we would not be marching down this road to self-destruction. But then, if he wasn’t such a puppet, those who pull the strings would not have strings to pull. I hope Prez Ayers enjoys the irony of how it took him all these years to finally ‘do more’…without risk of blowing himself up in the process.

Sep 27, 2009 - 8:16 am 43. bill:

This is the best of VDH, the meaty stuff we yearn for.

Trouble? 5% of the worlds population consuming 25% of the worlds oil production of which we only supply 3% spells big trouble. We are doing very little about that equation.

“For the answer about the Old Breed”

The question then becomes will Generation “Y” become the new Old Breed? We are still extolling the virtues of a global financial economy as opposed to the value of real work. We are more than happy to offshore (or use illegal labor) every tangible thing we do while we line up at the self service checkout stands at Ikea and Walmart.

It ain’t Obama as much as it is us. Who cares about their neighbor as long as the 401k gets back to even? No matter, we are an ownership society and as VDH suggested in previous columns we are counting on the Chinese to prop up our standard of living.

We may have the best military the world has known but how long can they sustain the fight when no one else has a stake in the struggle?

I don’t understand! Anxious to read about the Old Breed. You do wonder if we still possess the constitution of the Old Breed.

Sep 27, 2009 - 8:27 am 44. richard:

How fortunate are we to read VDH! Such intellects do not often this way pass.

Sep 27, 2009 - 9:16 am 45. R. Richard Schweitzer:

The great value, and it is a GREAT value, of an exposition like this from you,VDH, is that it points out that perceptions of the actors in the events of history are formed in the context of their own times; that the understanding of information perceived is circumscribed by historic, cultural, economic and other societal factors accumulated into those times.

You further point out that (possibly tragic) misunderstanding or lack of understanding can result in mis-perceptions, or lack of perception.

How “forces” arise from peoples to conteract the failures of understanding, the reactions (or failures to react which have doomed some) to perceived adversities and adversaries, should also be the subject of your kinds of studies; something beyond Toynbee’s “Challenge and Response.”

R. Richard Schweitzer

Sep 27, 2009 - 9:20 am 46. JMH:

Another thing to consider in the decision of Imperial Japan to go to war was that the men running it had no other viable option, according to their own bloodstained view of things. FDRs oil embargo meant they either needed to curtail their ambitions in China or end up completely defenseless for to lack of petroleum. Neither option was acceptable to the Army officers who were running things. Their careers, status, and (considering the assassinations that had been rampant) lives depended on military expansion. They didn’t murder their way to power in order to back down at the last minute.

By the accounts I’m familiar with, FDR didn’t intend to back Japan into a corner with the embargo. He didn’t expect them to respond by going to war, and to that extent it was a miscalculation on his part (he didn’t want war with Japan, he saw Germany as the major threat). FDR was not the most perceptive POTUS we’ve every had when it came to foreign policy, but he was a genius compared to Obama.

Sep 27, 2009 - 9:32 am 47. marymcl:

In some ways, we make the same mistake with Obama as he makes with Khadafy, Ahmedinejad, the Russians, or any other foreign entities whose interests run counter to those of the US, which is to assume he thinks like we do. The trouble with Obama and his apologists is that they regard anything they don’t know (for instance, most of human history) as irrelevant. That’s why he looks so brilliant to Davis S. and others of like mind and so disastrous to the rest of us. Obama and his supporters approach current problems as though life itself began anew with this administration, unless it’s to blame the previous one for anything they find difficult or intractable. They are, in a word, immature. And they don’t show any signs of growing up soon.

Sep 27, 2009 - 9:44 am 48. 438miler:

A wonderful piece. I too would love for you, Professor, to have some things available on podcast. I’ve cycled through your videos on fora.tv, and I can (and have) most of your books. My hope would be for some of the young people to be able to get their hands on actual history, rather than the ’social studies’ of today that masquerades as history.

The shame of today’s society is that the ‘old breed’ that people mention above are scorned by the youth of today and our gov’t as being racist, homophobic, misogynistic, imperialist, colonialist – and this idea is taken seriously at State U.

Sep 27, 2009 - 9:46 am 49. Bobby:

Hi Professor Hanson, I think publicly Obama is explaining his policies the way you describe…ie Bush caused the mess etc. But privately I suspect Obama simply resents the success of Western civilization versus the Muslim-African civilization that is his heritage. The difference in achievment between these civilizations is monumental. The Muslim and African nations could achieve Western levels of success by following the Western model of greater personal freedom, competition of ideas, free markets etc (as India and China have done to varying degrees) but unfortunately for now they remain mired in self defeating dogmas. A sense of inadequacy can be a powerful motivator of human behavior, both good and bad. My guess is Obama’s sense of self is largely built on his ethnic identity particularly since his education was in the contemporary humanities rather than say engineering or science. The West is an oppressor exploiting his cultural heritage etc helps to calm the sense of ethnic failure. His undermining of Western civilzation then is not because he doesn’t understand history but rather from a need to create a kind of global ethnic justice.

Sep 27, 2009 - 9:55 am 50. quesnay:

“If one were to examine in depth the First Marine Division, it is almost inexplicable that a mere few months after Pearl Harbor it could go head-to-head with battle-hardened Japanese brigades in Guadalcanal, without adequate air and naval support, and beat the Japanese on their own turf. Where did such men come from?”

Such men came from all over America. Men like my Father, a tough streetwise Brooklyn kid, who was a Navy Corpsman attached to the First Marine Division seventh marines, and enlisted because he heard in 1941 that his mother’s whole family including 14 brothers and sisters, were shot and buried in some Einsatzgruppen pit in Russia, Men like my Uncle, who as a brilliant lawyer enlisted in the air corp even though he was denied an officer’s commission simply because he was Jewish. My Uncle knew where the greater danger lied. Men like your Uncle Victor, who paid the ultimate price. African Americans who enlisted even though they were segregated and treated as second class citizens, and also realized where the greater danger lied. Boys from all over America who saw their families suffer through the great depression, but understood that freedom did not come cheap and had to be defended. Even the children of those Japanese American Citizens who had their property confiscated and thrown into internment camps, enlisted en masse, and as the 442nd in Europe had I believe, the highest casualty rate in the military.

Athletes such as Ted Williams and Hank Greenberg, and movie stars such as Clark Gable and Henry Fonda, proudly served their country as well as being an inspiration to so many of our nations youth back then. Those soldiers on Guadalcanal were for the most part ordinary men who as a collective, knew exactly why they were fighting and who the enemy was.

Sep 27, 2009 - 9:56 am 51. aramkr:

David S:
Having started out a liberal, I never developed very effective powers of argument but I’ll try. Everything you said about Bush is wrong. Everything you said about Obama is wrong. The rest of your post was quite enjoyable.

Sep 27, 2009 - 10:00 am 52. EscapeVelocity:

Trouble? 5% of the worlds population consuming 25% of the worlds oil production of which we only supply 3% spells big trouble. We are doing very little about that equation. — bill

70 percent of oil imports come from Mexico and Canada(which have the 2nd largest and 7th largest proven oil.

Hell, the US could produce much more, but the Leftwingers block that at every turn. Nuclear as well.

We have raving Leftwing lunatics in control of one party of our 2 party system. Who want to destroy Western Civilization and remake it into some Dystopian vision.

If we really want to defend our civilization, we must take back the schools and unis.

Else we will only keep winning phyrric battles on the long march to oblivion.

Sep 27, 2009 - 10:06 am 53. Ari Tai:

re: allies of the moment.

Didn’t the Axis have more “coalition partners” than any previous or following war? They must have been viewed as the strong horse by the majority of countries at the time.

If the U.S. isn’t the current and continuing strong-horse (even if bankrupt), who is? Who might eventually be? China perhaps? Certainly not Russia. Or old Europe, or England.

Sep 27, 2009 - 10:15 am 54. Don't Tread On Me 2009:

Take a look at this and tell me what you think …

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13267412/The-Kenyan-Candidate-Obama-SetUp-Known-in-Moscow-in-1991-the-First-Time-I-Heard-of-Barack

Sep 27, 2009 - 10:46 am 55. joh:

“…Obama is taking the right steps to restore American standing in the world, and refocus our military and diplomatic efforts on protecting the vital interests of Americans…”

Yes, I can see how supporting tyrants over democracy in Honduras and Iran is really restoring our standing in the world.

Additionally, throwing Poland and Eastern Europe to the Russians will really give what for to those evil corporations that are the real threat to America.

Plus, here comes a nuclear armed Iran and our all but announced retreat from Afghanistan.

But you are correct that this “strategy of Obama” will certainly cause us “refocus” our efforts, to say the least.

Sep 27, 2009 - 10:55 am 56. Poor Citizen:

Ok, let me get this straight 9/11 was like pearl harbor with…japan attacking america and Obama is like neville chaimberlin was …but with russia…

ok…ok….im with ya…so .. gitmo is also then like putting all of japan, or at least those in america in prisoner of war camps..ok im with ya..we did that…but we cant even release these folks in gitmo out into another prison?…wow…I need to look aggradizement up and …get a drink…..

good article and thank you…

Sep 27, 2009 - 11:12 am 57. ETAB:

David S – you are just ‘talking word’, which is to say, meaningless rhetoric.

Removing the Taliban from power (surely you didn’t support their regime) was a correct step. It isn’t easy for a tribal political and economic system to move into a democratic system (it took the West 400 years) but it has to be done. Tribalism is the root cause of Islamic fascism.

Equally, Bush was right to enable the Iraqi people to move into a constitutional democracy – an example to the other tribal regimes around them.

The world’s nations and peoples aren’t separated by time and space in this era and therefore the repressive regimes in the ME, which cause Islamic fascism, do affect us in the West.

Your verbiage about Obama’s ‘reinvention of America’s stance in the world’..is just that. Words. Empty and existing totally in rhetoric.

Do you seriously think that supporting Zelaya’s violation of the Honduran constitution is admirable? That ignoring the Iranian people’s open desire for democracy and ignoring their repression is admirable? That insulting each and every western ally of the US is constructive?

That constantly denigrating all of American history and peoples Before Obama and insisting that with His Arrival, a New Order has begun -is a symptom of anything other than a demented narcissism?

Result? Europe has turned its back re Afghanistan, Obama got nothing from Russia, and he’s enabled Iran to go nuclear, Russia to eye Eastern Europe as its property, and Venezuala to expand its control.

Bush did not ‘go it alone’ in Iraq. Kindly do not ignore the 33 other nations involved, including Britain, Australia, Netherlands, etc.
Nor is it a quagmire; it is moving from a history of dictatorial tribalism into democracy. You may denigrate this but that’s your choice.

Your post is filled with vapid empty rhetoric. What does ‘refocus our ..efforts..on protecting American interests’ actually mean in hard factual reality? What efforts? What is he doing? How does supporting Zelaya, supporting a fraudulent Iranian election, throwing Eastern Europe out, raising the deficit to astronomical levels and thus tying us to China and India to buy u out..how does this look after our interests?

Please explain. He’s harming America!

Think – and stop with your 60’s ‘peace’ smugness. Think..and use facts not empty platitudes.

Sep 27, 2009 - 11:40 am 58. EV:

Obama couldnt put a coalition together, as he keeps throwing our best allies under the bus…and snubbing them.

While talking about how shitty American is. Who want to ally with the US, you get more by snubbing them in the most egregious of manner.

Surreal.

Sep 27, 2009 - 12:38 pm 59. Kirk Petersen:

Gee folks, I’m a VDH fan myself, but I’m continually perplexed by the fawning nature of many of the comments on this and other VDH threads. Nobody else seems to get the same kind of treatment on PJM (or on any other opinion site, for that matter).

The quotes below are all pulled from THIS thread. With so many people addressing VDH with academic titles, I’m tempted to think that the commenters are students in his classes. If so, shame on you…

Mr Hanson,
Informative, insightful, eloquent and entertaining as usual. What I wouldn’t give to sit around some evening and hear your ideas, adventures or stories and share ideas over a beer or glass of wine…

Thank you, Professor Hanson, for this insightful history lesson.

Great post, doc, and very apt.

An excellent and insightful analysis by Dr. Hanson.

All the children dancing with the Huns in the palace haven’t read one page of any history. If their cohorts read your superb analysis, VDH, they will assume it is ex post facto reasoning…

VDH, Please DO offer courses by DVD/ online. It is sorely needed.

Awesome piece.

The great value, and it is a GREAT value, of an exposition like this from you,VDH, is that it points out

A wonderful piece. I too would love for you, Professor, to have some things available on podcast. I’ve cycled through your videos on fora.tv, and I can (and have) most of your books.

This is the best of VDH, the meaty stuff we yearn for.

How fortunate are we to read VDH! Such intellects do not often this way pass.

::hurl::

Sep 27, 2009 - 1:04 pm 60. PM:

57. ETAB,

Well said, although you’re speaking to a brick wall.

Sep 27, 2009 - 1:33 pm 61. David P:

Obama revealing to the world how bitch made America can become under his pathetic leadership.

Sep 27, 2009 - 1:44 pm 62. Paul M Hupf:

It is painful for me, a Marine Corps WWII veteran with combat experience, to reflect on the damage the President is doing. He is naive and simple minded in the field of foreign affairs and he is playing into the hands of the very nations bent on our destruction. Even worse he is alienating nations which are traditionally aligned with the United States in the field of foreign affairs. What makes him think he can do what others before him were unable to do? He acts as if, without any demonstrable previous experience, he single handedly can tame the world? Children who believe in the tooth fairy have more reason to do so than the President has to believe that he is the one to bring peace, light and harmony to the world by United States disarmament.

Sep 27, 2009 - 1:45 pm 63. biblio44:

Ignorance of history? Hah! You’re dealing with PJM bloggers and readers who firmly believe that Naziism was left-wing. They point out National SOCIALIST Party as if historians had somehow missed it all these years.

Sep 27, 2009 - 2:38 pm 64. Jeffrey:

Mr. V.D.H.
I hope everyone reads your “Something Fishy” article at NRO because today’s article is an important follow up to that NRO article. I think you’ve begun to expose the Obama administrations policy of ensuring Iran has time to acquire the bomb. Knowing what they knew about Iran’s secret facility and deliberately hiding it for many months while delaying talks until later this year is only playing into the hands of our enemies, definitely not in our self interest. The Obama policy fits nicely with the self interests of our sworn and unsworn enemies. So in whose interest is the Obama administration working? Is this a sort of coupe d’état? Looks like it in the historical perspective; one political party takes over and its 180 degrees where possible, complete with crooks, thugs and liars supporting only the most radical of ours or any society, robbing the rich to give to the so-called poor while grafting some part of every penny along the way. Let’s see how the nations align themselves, whoops that’s already started hasn’t it? (the threat to move away from the dollar, America will be split up commentary from Russia etc…) We shall pay more attention to that now thanks to you.
Israel is now left as the Canary in the coal mine. God bless her, she needs a miracle.
Maybe they have a 1st Marine Division. Maybe they become an economic miracle as well.
Finally, we are all grateful for your insight. My hope is, that everyone whom so appreciates you would buy your books and start the historical discovery on their own.
If we all followed your example we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Stay safe.

Sep 27, 2009 - 2:39 pm 65. biblio44:

“Is it just possible that after 9/11 they quickly learned there were no good choices in dealing with the epigones of Mohammed Atta….”

Why wasn’t it learned BEFORE 9/11. This paragraph, from John Dufresne’s review of a book on Pat Tillman in the Boston Globe, neatly sums it up:

On Aug. 6, 2001, our vacationing president was warned by the CIA for the 36th time in eight months that Osama bin Laden was determined to strike in the United States and that recent intelligence had suggested an attack might be imminent. There were at that moment, George W. Bush was told, 70 bin-Laden-related field investigations being conducted in the country. “All right,’’ our president told the CIA officer, “you’ve covered your ass.’’

Sep 27, 2009 - 2:48 pm 66. mingus:

Sometimes history gets in the way. It’s fun to comtemplate Eisenhower, Haig, Meade, Alexander, Epidimondas, etc. But that was then, and this is now. Different age, different world, different weapons, different potential outcomes. And human beings are quite different as well. Victory requires action. Define your aims, prepare your forces, and act. If you dither, you lose. By the way, BIBLIO44, you are a total schmuck. Nothing personal. The only thing I have to go on is your contributions to this site.

Sep 27, 2009 - 3:00 pm 67. Dr. T:

“3) The Japanese coveted oil, rubber, tin, rice, and other strategic commodities. And now the Dutch East Indies were without their colonial masters after the fall of Western Europe….”

So how does that justify attacking the US? Japan was already grabbing parts of China. Japan could have conquered Southeast Asia and Indonesia, and we would not have declared war. The Japanese attacked the US because they were angered and insulted by the steel and oil embargoes (and other trade restrictions) we applied after they invaded China. There was no strategic benefit to attacking the US (we certainly weren’t going to drop the embargoes after they attacked us), and the tactical benefit of destroying the planes, ships, and bases at Pearl Harbor was short-lived.

If Japan had acted both aggressively and logically, it would be a superpower today. Now it’s an economic powerhouse, but a military mouse that lacks natural resources. It threw that away when it stupidly chose to attack the most powerful nation in the world. This isn’t just hindsight analysis: some of Japan’s top military leaders argued against attacking the US. The wanted to move directly to the Dutch East Indies to secure oil, rubber, and other natural resources. Emotions won over logic (as usual), and the Japanese made a terribly poor decision.

Sep 27, 2009 - 3:08 pm 68. tommy:

You’d think that the Russians, and the world, would know what this county is capable of when pushed too far.
Hope it doesn’t come to that.

Sep 27, 2009 - 3:20 pm 69. quesnay:

# 57 ETAB ~ Way to go. You said what needs to be said, and what you said is the truth. The most disgraceful thing was the unabated effort by the left to bring down, through lies and distortion a sitting President for reasons of political expediency. I remember a line from Judgement at Nuremberg where toward the end of the movie Spencer Tracy says these powerful words to Maximillian Schell:

“Herr Rolfe, I have admired your work in the court for many months. You are particularly brilliant in your use of logic -so, what you suggest may very well happpen. It *is* logical, in view of the times in which we live. *But to be logical is not to be right*, and *nothing* on God’s earth could ever *make it* right!

Sep 27, 2009 - 3:38 pm 70. ETAB:

biblio44 – I assume you are joking. Yes, the Third Reich was a leftist regime.

The political ideology of the left is socialist, which means, that it is focused around the agenda of the collective rather than the individual. The collective are supposed to be grouped and treated ‘as one’.

In addition, the authoritative power to make political and economic decisions is to rest wih the government not with individuals. This means the government is in power rather than the individual.

You can see all of this in the insertion of the Third Reich govt in power, the removal of elections, the removal of individual rights and freedoms, the focus on loyalty to ‘the state’, or ‘the nation’ rather than to the ideals of democracy and freedom.

Oh – and with reference to your claim that Bush was warned for the 36th time about Bin Laden – were these warnings specific, including times and places and agents? Or were they general? You obviously think that Bush should have taken immediate action. Could you explain what this action ought to have been?

Nazi Germany made the government the supreme power; individuals had no power.

Sep 27, 2009 - 3:40 pm 71. No Obama:

Knowing what they knew about Iran’s secret facility and deliberately hiding it for many months while delaying talks until later this year

Pres. hopenchange:

“Never waste a good crises.”

With 52 percent young adults unemployed-

6.9 million Americans looking for work,
when all get good and hungry

Why not create a 10 million strong liberated workforce with the pledge of allegiance to Barack Hussein Obama
“hmmm-hmmm-hmmm”

Might even get them to fight the Iranians or Conservative voters during the 2010 elections?

Sep 27, 2009 - 4:21 pm 72. lefroy:

Putin’s moral compass has been formed by a lifetime in the KGB. It’s that simple.

His foreign policy is no more sophisticated that the pursuit of any strategy that irritates, distracts, frightens and weakens the US, and that restores the brute influence of the Soviet Union.

He nourishes a policy of systematic assassination of government critics. He knows that they know what is doing it; it’s an effective, low key way of keeping dissent at a low level.

Sounding like a broken record here, but his model of the selfless, uncorrupt public servant is the paranoid murderer-spymaster Yuri Andropov; he thinks that the collapse of the Soviet Union was “the geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century”. That’s the sort of moral individual we are dealing with.

He would not really be troubled by the incineration of a few million Americans in a terrorist attack; not at all. It would be a useful geostrategic corrective. Go figure.

Sep 27, 2009 - 5:00 pm 73. Brian Richard Allen:

That the Iranian Madmullahdom even exists may be directly attributed to Jimmah-Bubbah Cartah, the every-bit-as un-and-anti-American, treasonous and anti-Semitic forebear/prototype of today’s sail-eared simpleton mommy’s boy pretender “president.”

As may the fact that many of today’s other potential and/or actual problems include a Latin America brim-full of our potential and/or actual enemies and a Chinese-commucrony-controlled Panama Canal that not long ago witnessed its first active Russian Naval vessel on its way to visit its ally in the newly-emerged Thuggocracy of Venezuela.

But nor aught we lose site of the other reality touched on here, that without the perfidious treasons by-any-other-name perpetrated by the twentieth century’s most destructive-of-our-Constitutional-protections pretender to the “presidency,” F D Roosevelt — and by his so-richly Soviet-agent-larded “administration” — the mobbed-up Mussolini-modeled modified-Marxist murtadd-Muslim mothers’ boy “president” would never have made it out of ACORN’s South-side sh**-stir-dom.

And nor would we have ever been saddled with a Kennedy nor a Johnson. And absolutely not with the lying, looting, mass-murdering, co-serial-rapist Cli’ton Crime family.

Thank you Mr Roosevelt.

Sep 27, 2009 - 6:31 pm 74. Ghandi:

The musselmen did not hate Clinton so no warnings prior to 1/20/01

Sep 27, 2009 - 6:33 pm 75. wolfwalker:

“And where in just a few months, by say late 1943, did all these brilliant designs and new planes come from? The Hellcat, Corsair, Helldiver, Lightning, etc., that were not just as good as Japanese head-start models, but suddenly far better? How did an American aeronautical industry, without wartime experience, design and produce the world’s best fighters (cf. the Thunderbolt and Mustang) in less than 30 months? And more amazingly, how does a peacetime country in a little over two years begin to produce hundreds of B-29s and an entire fleet of Essex carriers ex nihilo? It’s quite inexplicable.”

Dr. Hanson, I’m sadly surprised to see you writing such things about the Pacific War. The fact of the matter is that none of these designs were post-Pearl-Harbor ones, except for the F6F Hellcat. The great American warplanes of WW2, such as the F4U, P-38, P-47, P-51, B-17, B-24, B-29, TBF, SBD, and SB2C were all either prewar designs or developed directly from prewar designs, and all benefited during development from British advice and combat experience. As for the fabled Two-Ocean Navy, the new battleship and carrier classes were on the drawing boards before the war started, authorized by Congress as part of FDR’s great rearmament plans of 1939 and 1940. I’m not sure the speed of construction is all that impressive either: even after construction rates peaked, it still took 15 months for an _Essex_ class carrier to go from keel-laying to commissioned warship, and only 11 of them actually reached combat in time to make any difference. Personally, I find the speed and magnitude of the merchant-ship construction programs during the war much more impressive.

Sep 27, 2009 - 7:04 pm 76. Kevin S:

biblio44

Did you read Krakauer’s book or did you just read Dufresne’s review? If just the review, you’ll notice that even Dufresne has no actual quotes attributing 36 warnings prior to 911. Go to Dufresne’s web site and he makes no apologies for being an old lefty who believes in socialism. Could his review possibly, just possibly, be slanted? Oh wait, he does have a quote, the one you mentioned above…but what’s the provenance of the quote?
But then lefties don’t make things up, right? The quote might be false, but the sense of it is true, right?

Sep 27, 2009 - 7:48 pm 77. Utopia Parkway:

I always figured the French would be the one’s most likely to use nukes in the modern era. Some terrorist outrage would be committed on their soil or against French interests overseas and they would be forced by their pride to respond. Since they can’t project force their response would be with their nukes.

Now maybe it’ll be Obama. He won’t act but will only react. On some dark day he’ll be forced by his own pride to react in response to an intemperate act by Iran or some non-state actor. That’s what happened to the Japanese.

Sep 27, 2009 - 8:22 pm 78. kathy:

42. Suzi:
Question: Where the heck do you teach that they ALLOW you to tell the TRUTH of history?

Answer: Hillsdale College, Autumn Course, Sept 8 – Oct 9, “The Second World War – A Global Perspective”
Public Lecture: “The Future of Western Warfare”, October 1 http://www.victorhanson.com/

Sep 27, 2009 - 8:44 pm 79. David W. Lincoln:

The contrived detachment of Agent Zero, that he is not to be troubled with trifles (namely those phenomena which counter his ideology) speaks to the vanity and narrow-mindedness of the current occupant of the Oval Office.

It doesn’t matter what happened. It doesn’t matter about deciphering the past to see if there are parallels to today. What matters is that Obama is happy. Otherwise, he will not be happy.

Sep 27, 2009 - 9:30 pm 80. whyamInotsurprised?:

#59 Kirk Petersen – Amen! I like reading VDH, he offers a lot from his learning and insight. Obviously he is very intelligent. However, I find it difficult sometimes to read comments on his writings knowing that there will be a bunch of worshipping suck-ups heaping praise on the professor.
I appreciate his sharing his work but would rather the idolators share their own thoughts rather than the tingle they get down their leg at the good doctor’s writings.

Sep 28, 2009 - 12:44 am 81. Monday, September 28, 2009 — ExposeTheMedia.com:

[...] If Obama Paid Closer Attention To History, He Wouldn’t Be Turning U.S. Foreign Policy Upside-D… [...]

Sep 28, 2009 - 1:47 am 82. quesnay:

# 43 Bill
You ask “You do wonder if we still possess the constitution of the Old Breed.” This article came across my desk a week or so ago http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125314990419818343.html

Sep 28, 2009 - 7:19 am 83. paul_unalaska:

Great article, Professor.

David S, just got back from Sevilla, Spain. Newsflash: Anti-American views weren’t apparent there, either. No worries, I’m still on the hunt for those ‘oh so many’ interested European, African folks of U.S. policy to reassure your guilt.

I have to admit. I am tired of reading from the AP and myriad of other articles about the ‘vague’, ‘non-definitive’ ‘details to follow later’ comments after the Manchurian Candidate in-Chief speaks.

I’d read this ‘reason’ again when MCiC spoke to the ‘useful’ UN last week.

The guy hasn’t been forthcoming, detail oriented in any facet. Whether it’s his ‘releasing’ personal information (i.e. medical, college, grad school, et al.), READING nor detailing the ’stimulus’ money and those who receive it (everyone from Bank Exec bonuses who had to later return the money, as well as ‘perverts out out’ to say but a few..)

Now this guy is going to Denmark, with his family of course, to campaign for Shy town to get the 2016 Olympic Games.

Is this guy EVER going to do the job he vowed to uphold? In between his Letterman, Leno, guest spots of course..

What a shill of a person..

Sep 28, 2009 - 7:45 am 84. TomF:

22. Chileno
Best summary of Obama’s foreign policy I have seen to date.

Sep 28, 2009 - 10:15 am 85. MarkD:

biblio44,

Do you seriously expect me to believe some “cia officer” warned the president about 9/11 in specific terms, and this never came up in the hearings? Would this be one of the cia officers that helped Bush plant the explosives that really brought down the twin towers, or did he and Cheney plant them all personally? I find these conspiracies hard to keep up with.

On a more timely topic, what are the psychics telling Obama about Iran?

Sep 28, 2009 - 10:15 am 86. MarkD:

Maybe that would be a different cia than the one that leaked to the NY Times. Or maybe Jamie Gorelick helped Bush cover it up, because she was an admirer.

I just can’t reach the level of willing suspension of disbelief required to believe that nonsense.

Sep 28, 2009 - 10:32 am 87. bill:

“70 percent of oil imports come from Mexico and Canada(which have the 2nd largest and 7th largest proven oil.”

How ironic, 70 years after WW2 America shoulders the burden for almost all of the western world. Japan is the second-largest net importer of oil – nearly all of its comes from the Middle East.

There is only one worldwide pool of oil. 40% of it travels through the Strait of Hormuz. The fact that we aren’t exploiting every available option to reduce our dependence on foreign oil is beyond belief.

What do we do? Figure out more ways to make ourselves less efficient under the banner of “Green”.

Russia is most certainly laughing at us with all of those American boots on the ground. China is laughing too.

On the point about the American mobilization after Pearl Harbor, wasn’t most of the infrastructure already in place that allowed us convert existing factories to make tanks, planes, and ships on short notice? The massive manpower mobilization began with the enactment of the Selective Training and Service Act in Sept. 1940, well before Pearl Harbor.

What about now?

Sep 28, 2009 - 12:48 pm 88. Jan McDaniel:

@59 Kirk:

You are a VDH fan, but admiring comments make you want to hurl?

Would you be more comfortable if we all just said “cool, man”?

Admiration of the fruit of a lifetime of accomplishment (VDH) is not the same as Obama worship.

Sep 28, 2009 - 1:04 pm 89. Kent G. Budge:

I am also fascinated by the history of the Pacific Theater, to the point of obsession: http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com

Sledge’s memoirs are classics that deserve wider reading. They give a wonderful feel for how it was for the Marine on the ground, from the point of view of a man who grew to hate war without losing his realism or his patriotism.

It’s patriotism that got us through that crisis. The military somehow held onto officers of the caliber of Marshal, Eisenhower, Patton, King, Nimitz, Halsey, and Spruance, who sacrificed what were likely better career opportunities in the private sector to continue studying the problems of modern war. They had a pretty good idea what needed to be done once war broke out; what materiel would have to be produced and how it needed to be employed.

Sep 28, 2009 - 1:40 pm 90. Ritchie Emmons:

I think that VDH touches on a very good point in this article. The propensity of Americans (mostly those on the left) to view all things through their own Western/Enlightenemnt eyes.

They can’t fathom that there are Muslims that want to kill us simply because they hate what America stands for, and their religion (in it’s pure form) even demands it – even though these same Muslims see how wonderful life can be in the West.

They can’t fathom that Putin’s Russia is more interested in money and power and domination than with helping to keep Iran nuclear weapon free.

Because they can’t seem to fathom such things from the viewpoint of the “other side,” there’s a propensity rather to irrationally blame conservatives/Bush/America for any ill will directed our way.

There are (at least) two things that I believe must be given proper heed when making foreign policy decisions. First, look at things through the other guy’s eyes. Second, beware the law of unintended consequences. (Like the ramifications of ditching our allies Poland and Czeck Republic, seemingly to appease Putin.)

Progressives, to me, live in a fantasy land and see the world as they want to see it and not how it is. That’s very dangerous. Especially when WMD’s are in the equation.

Sep 28, 2009 - 2:11 pm 91. nuke student:

Use of the atomic bomb-
August 1945,
destroyed the Japanese war commanders desire to commit suicide for the divine emperor.

When they realized the Americans could/would destroy the divine ones palace and city they gave up.

Surrender saved millions of lives.

Before 1945 an average of 5 million people lost their lives in conventional warfare around the globe.

Since the atomic bomb only an average 1 million have died in conventional wars annually.

President Truman saved lives with the atomic bomb.

Now we have rogue nations that might use it.

We have never seen results from a rogue bomb and I think we will see the same results.
The world will demand nuclear disarmament.

I am also trying to honor my mother for her hard work and early death after she spent 3 years at Oak Ridge Tennessee developing the bomb.

Thank You…

Sep 28, 2009 - 3:00 pm 92. R. Richard Petersen:

This commentator:
Is 85 years of age;
Saw action in WW II;
Is older (I think) than VDH’s father;
Has an honest appreciation of the value of the study and presentation of History (esp. Jacques Barzun & Isaiah Berlin)and what can be understood from it;
Is surprised at being riled by snide remarks.

Incidentally, did YOU read Toynbee’s “Study?”

R. Richard Schweitzer

Sep 28, 2009 - 4:47 pm 93. R. Richard Schweitzer:

Due to malfunction:

Comment 87 addressed to:

KIRK PETERSEN

was mislabeled

R. Rcihard Schweitzer

Sep 28, 2009 - 4:50 pm 94. TLM:

whyamInotsurprised?:

“…but would rather the idolators share their own thoughts rather than the tingle they get down their leg at the good doctor’s writings.”

Greetings fellow idolator. I take it “the good doctor’s writings” was an oversight and not sarcasm.

VDH has a fan club here because there are still people — from all walks of life — who appreciate a well constructed argument, one that doesn’t rely on sophistry, rhetorical gimmicks or histrionics to make a point. IMO, the main problem with this site is the dearth of (coherent) rebuttals from those whose opinions differ. Their absence makes the “fans” stick out.

BTW, please don’t overuse, and thereby cheapen, the “tingle down the leg” trope. The person who owns that phrase hopes to use it as his entre into the Sycophant’s Hall of Shame.

Sep 28, 2009 - 4:58 pm 95. TLM:

The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, aka citizen journalists, again scoop the big dogs in the media. Check out Stanley Kurtz at The Corner for the latest on ACORN’s ties to the White House. The MSM picked the wrong time to forfeit their investigative journalism schtick, as well as their credibility.

Power to the blog people.

Sep 28, 2009 - 6:41 pm 96. Banned by Huffpo:

Mr. Hanson:

The past as prologue. But next time, we lose.

If you haven’t, you must read “Coral and Brass” by General Holland M. Smith, USMC.

I’m quite certain that we don’t have the stomach for another world war. Those in power would surrender in a nanosecond rather than sacrifice.

Look at the amazing accomplishments in Iraq with less loss of American and allied life in five years than took place in one Island campaign in WWII in a few days.

Astounding.

Sep 28, 2009 - 7:39 pm 97. R. Richard Schweitzer:

Holy Cats!

To: KIRK PETERSEN

comment 92 was addressed to you.

It was mislabled as #87

R. Richard Schweitzer

Sep 28, 2009 - 9:07 pm 98. alex:

American Manufacturing capability, and the fact no one bombed American manufacturing capability, is what saved WW2. This capacity to place materials on the battlefield is what Japanese military was deathly afraid of, and rightly so.

There are only 1-2 categories that any other nation outperformed the USA, in most the USA exceeds by very large margins. This is what wins wars of attrition, which WW2 was.

another point is USA fighter aces were brought back home to teach, most other nations fighter aces were kept on the front lines until they were killed, losing their knowledge and expertise.

Why Japan Attacked Pearl Harbor is not a mystery, but no single answer will fit either; the only obstacle to the dutch east Indies was US sea power. US cut Japan off from petroleum supplies, Japan did not believe the US could unite and fight in WW2, war with the US was inevitable, take the offensive and at least delay US by 1 year to buy time to cement their offensive in Asia, Japanese belief they were a superior race etc, etc.
It was the weight of all these reasons that made it palatable for Japan to Attack Pearl Harbor

Sep 28, 2009 - 9:25 pm 99. bt_dooftlook:

I believe a significant impetus for Japanese aggression was a report they received from the Germans, who captured it from a British liner, SS Automedon; the report examined Britain’s ability to defend her Far East colonies should Japan enter the war and concluded that it could not spare ships or troops from the North Atlantic and Mediterranean.

This report shifted Japan’s war calculus significantly; instead of having to defend captured territories from two major powers, she would only need to defeat half of the American Navy, based at Pearl Harbor.

Japan received the report in the spring of 1941 and began training for the proposed assault by summer of 1941. Coincidence?

Sep 28, 2009 - 10:22 pm 100. nuke student:

Chris Matthews: A shallow new reporter.

“It’s part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama’s speech. My, I felt this
thrill going up my leg.
I mean, I don’t have that too often.” Minutes later, Brian Williams poked fun at Matthews’ confession:

“Let’s talk about that feeling Chris gets up his leg when Obama talks

If you plan to quote history at least get it correct.

It was up his leg not down.

That is the problem with most Americans they refuse to study even short history..

Sep 29, 2009 - 3:22 am 101. whyamInotsurprised?:

#100 Nuked – maybe I used the gist of that story but in this case I meant “down” their leg. So bite me.

Sep 29, 2009 - 8:14 am 102. Michael:

Admiral Yamamoto was considered brilliant by not only the Japanese but also by the Americans. He spent some years in Washington and was known and liked by many government and military officials and he knew and liked America and Americans.

With all that he made the most catastrophic miscalculation of the war. He made that mistake because with all his brilliance and his familiarity with Americans he still completely misread the American character. He didn’t appreciate America’s history.

Yamamoto designed the Pearl Harbor attack and it worked pretty much as he expected. It also awakened a sleeping giant. No other thing in this world would have galvanized and launched America into total war as that one act did. He sealed the fate of Japan on the first day of the war.

Yes, history is important yet some that have replied to this article still minimize the worth of and need to remember it. I can only shake my head in wonder at some peoples reasoning skills.

Let me make it simple. One can only deal effectively with our nation’s friends and enemies by knowing their national and/or tribal culture. This is done by knowing their history. Period.

Sep 29, 2009 - 8:18 am 103. Mchael:

What if the Japanese went straight for Indonesia without going thru Pearl harbor? The only reason we got into the war when we did was sneak attack (which actually would not have been so sneaky if the Japanese could have decoded faster)

By the time we did enter the war it might have been too late and the Japanese, not mention the Germans, might have come out smelling like roses.

Sep 29, 2009 - 11:25 am 104. Michael:

History is replete with countries trying to mollify dictators. It has never worked. There have been many examples of incremental sanctions against aggressors. They have never worked.

Even familiarity isn’t enough when history isn’t studied. Admiral Yamamoto was considered brilliant by not only the Japanese but also by the Americans. He spent some years in Washington and was known and liked by many government and military officials and he knew and liked America and Americans.

With all that he made the most catastrophic miscalculation of the war. He made that mistake because with all his brilliance and his familiarity with Americans he still completely misread the American character. He didn’t appreciate America’s history.

Yamamoto designed the Pearl Harbor attack and it worked pretty much as he expected. It also awakened a sleeping giant. No other thing in this world would have galvanized and launched America into total war as that one act did. He sealed the fate of Japan on the first day of the war.

Yes, history is important yet some that have replied to this article still minimize the worth of and need to remember it. I can only shake my head in wonder at some peoples reasoning skills.

Let me make it simple. One can only deal effectively with our nation’s friends and enemies by knowing their national and/or tribal culture. This is done by knowing their history. Period.

Sep 29, 2009 - 11:49 am 105. The Past Is Not Quite Past | 1913 Intel:

[...] Works and Days » The Past Is Not Quite Past google.load("elements", "1", {packages: "transliteration"}); [...]

Sep 29, 2009 - 8:14 pm 106. Pajamas Media » The Past is Not Quite Past:

[...] Read the rest of the story here. [...]

Sep 30, 2009 - 10:19 am 107. Paul from Hamburg:

#70. “You obviously think that Bush should have taken immediate action. Could you explain what this action ought to have been?”.

I am sure biblio44 would agree that Bush should have rounded up Mohammed Atta, and lots of other Muslims, and detained them indefinitely. That would have guaranteed that they would have been unable to attack the US.

Sep 30, 2009 - 10:44 am 108. Mirco:

Belgian or Italian would be willing to die for Kiev

As Italian I find this offensive.
Italians already die for Kabul and stay there.
Italians died in Iraq also, and only the leftist Prodi take them back. The US did the same with Viet-Nam, when your leftists came to power in the 70s.
Scaring the Europeans is dangerous. Russia could scare us a few times. But it is totally dependent on the revenues of oil and gas. They scare us, they blackmail us with oil and gas, we start (are forced to) make up in other ways.
The EU military forces assembled are second only to the US forces and, maybe, a war could force the bureaucrats to lose control over the population (like happened to the Democrats during WW2).

Sep 30, 2009 - 1:58 pm 109. Mirco:

The correct citation is “No Belgian or Italian would be willing to die for Kiev” obviously.

Sep 30, 2009 - 2:11 pm 110. Pete:

Dr. Hanson, RE: your comments on the achivements of the 1st MarDiv at Guadalcanal in summer/fall 1942, in many years of study of WWII, I have always regarded the Pacific War as one of the crowning achievements of that time. The Soviet military killed 7 or 8 (estimates vary) of every 10 Germans killed in battle, and probably could have defeated the Germans alone after 1943 and Kursk. However, no nation on Earth in the 1940s (perhaps not even today wage the kind of war we did in the Pacific, over the immense distances involved, and triumph as we did. Our supply lines were thousands of miles long, yet our troops, airmen, and sailors had the tools of war close at hand while those of Japan increasingly did not. Guadalcanal was a special triumph becuase our war production had not stepped up to later levels by that time, and the Marines went ashore poorly supplied; this was compounded by the fact that the US Navy fled the island under threat of Japanese attack, leaving the Marines without heavy construction eqpt., many of their rations, and much more. The USMC survived on captured Japanese rations, and used captured construction eqpt. until US gear arrived. The Cactus Airforce, flew out of shellpocked Henderson Field, under near-constant attack from Japanese air and naval forces, and at risk of being overrun by Imperial ground forces, against many times their number, in fighters inferior to the feared Japanese A6M Zero. Yet, they triumphed.

The “Old Breed” of every service, not only the Marines, served as an experienced cadre of veterans, who supplied the necessary skeleton for the flesh of the vastly expanded wartime military.

The armaments industry produced legendary designs, everything from the P-51 Mustang to the Higgins Boat, and Rosie the Riveter and her pals built them. In those days, inventors and engineers didn’t need to file mountains of papers or talk to an army of lawyers first – if they saw the need, they built whatever was needed. Let the paperwork catch up later. Even flawed weapons systems – such as the M4 Sherman tank – had their virtues, and were built in such numbers that our foes could not keep up.

The nation had a “can do” spirit then, and after the long depression, folks were ready to work their hardest… and did. There was a sense of shared responsibility, the idea that if you didn’t build just one more gun, tank or plane, make just one more bullet or shell, you were condemning one of your countrymen to death on a foreign battlefield. ‘

Our military, bureaucratic and slow-to-adapt in peacetime, became an innovative war-winner during WWII, thanks to leaders like Army Chief of Staff GC Marshall – who ruthlessly cut the dead wood in favor of performers. The “get it done” mentality of the common foot soldier was nowhere better exemplified than in SGT Curtis Cullen, who invented the hedgechopper – on the fly, under the pressure of expediency – to help break our forces out of the hedgerows in Normandy in summer 1944.

“Good-bye Darkness” (William Manchester) and “The Old Breed” are two of the finest war-time memoirs ever written by enlisted Marines.

I am not convinced that Obama and Co. are reading the history of the same nation I am, when they read these books, and others like them, not if his comments about our national history are an accurate indication.

Instead of a nation determined to win its wars no matter what the cost, a nation where everyone pitched in, we have not a nation at war, only a military at war. The rest of us are told to go shopping. Times have changed and not for the better.

—-

Mirco, I saw that six Italians were killed in the line of duty in Afganistan, condolences andf many thanks for their sacrifice.

Sep 30, 2009 - 10:28 pm 111. SjB:

There are many flaws that can be said of Obama, just like there are for all men. The main problem, as I see it, is that Obama is unfit to fill the office of President. He lacks the maturity, the knowledge, the experience, and the stomach for it. He lives in a La-La land that puts us all in danger.

As your article points out, Obama seems to think he can create his own reality and has no apparent regard for history. He seems to think he can manipulate human nature and remake it into his own image. He lacks any realistic appreciation for the numerous boundaries we must live within for our own good, the limitations of human knowledge and wisdom, the law of unintended consequences, the necessity of crafting careful, painstaking policy-making over time, the need for wise advisors, and unbelievably, doesn’t appear to understand that real evil exists and that he can cripple or destroy this nation.

We are in peril because we have a President who is unfit and who refuses to come down to earth and face reality. Instead of staying home and reading, learning, studying, and finding quality advisors, he’s off spouting nonsensical irrelevant speeches all over the world. May God have mercy upon us.

Oct 3, 2009 - 7:29 am

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