VDH tells me to sit down and shut up

Well, not me directly, but that is how I read it.

Last week I bit off on a good piece by a good man - and still think that there are good points to be gathered there.

One of the 100# heads out there, that is VERY big in the Salamander Pantheon, Victor Davis Hanson, takes everyone to the woodshed in Strategy, Strategy Everywhere …… but not a drop of memory.. My backside still hurts.

Even though we have failed so far to marshal the strength to crush the Sunni insurrection, Iraq is still a far better place now than it was in March 2003, as most Iraqis agree. The Middle East is a better place, whether in Palestine, Afghanistan, or Lebanon. And the position of the United States, the object of unprecedented acrimony and invective, is better off — whether we measure that as the absence of another 9/11 attack, strengthening friendships with India, Japan, Eastern Europe, and the English-speaking countries, reforming the anti-American U.N., or making some progress in North Korea.

But who is really angry at America since 2001?

Al Qaeda, of course. Saddamites, especially. Radical Islamicists no doubt.

France and Germany are also apparently unhappy: They lost plenty of oil business and loans in Iraq; they are facing the wages of not assimilating Islamic minorities in their midst; and they are fathoming that socialist and statist policies cannot be salvaged by cheap election-time anti-Americanism in an age when the United States is more eager to keep our distance from them than they us.

Historic changes are underway in Afghanistan and Iraq. While we at home squabble and point fingers, the U.S. military fortunately continues in its difficult but landmark mission — and so far, thankfully, pays us all little heed.

I would pay good money to see a debate between Nathaniel Fick and VDH, but they may agree more than not.

As for me, I am going to go back to playing with my blocks.