How Maj. Hasan should have been handled
Victor Davis Hanson has a good point at National Review Online:
[...] Major Hasan should have been treated the same way a lone-wolf Nazi would have been treated in 1943 — once it was revealed that he was mouthing Hitlerian doctrine on a U.S. military base and communicating with Nazi-sympathizers in Argentina.
But under the Bush and Obama administrations, Islam and jihad are no-fly zones for government. Could you imagine the fallout had FDR banned the government from mentioning Nazis in a negative light? Or mentioning – as candidate Obama did regarding Hamas and Hezbollah – that Hitler does in fact have “legitimate claims?”
In: National Security · Tagged with: Nidal Malik Hasan, Victor Davis Hanson
Explaining Biden’s incoherence on Iraq
Victor Davis Hanson makes a brilliant explanation on Biden’s (and Obama’s) numerous contradictory positions on Iraq over the years, which he also chronicles.
If one were to factor in four outside variables — a) proximity of presidential elections; b) current polls regarding Iraq; c) current polls regarding George Bush’s popularity; d) current level of violence in Iraq — one could pretty much have predicted all of Biden’s seemingly incoherent positions and many of Obama’s.
That is, they are not illogical, but simply shadow the above four considerations at any given time.
E.g., Bush polling well, election way off, majority support for the war, progress in Iraq = bipartisan, statesmanlike support for an ongoing American war in Iraq.
But Bush not polling well, presidential or congressional elections coming up, majority of Americans polling against the war, deadlock in Iraq = shrill, partisan attack on ongoing American war in Iraq.
We expect this from most of our politicians on most issues. But in times of war, when thousands of Americans are executing a policy abroad at great risk to their lives, it is a dangerous thing to predicate support almost entirely on politics.
It’s not about national security. It’s not about the lives of those they send overseas. It’s about power.
In: Politics · Tagged with: Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Iraq, Joe Biden, Victor Davis Hanson
