VDH @ LAT

From Victor Davis Hanson in yesterday's Los Angeles Times:

.... There is a paradox in democratic warfare. We are ill at ease with arms, yet we wield them effectively. We need firebrands like Gens. Sherman, George S. Patton and Curtis LeMay -- and then we often tire of them when the smoke clears.

But there can be no denying war's purpose or utility. Three million Afghan women are in school today and a vast Al Qaeda camp is removed because of the bravery of the U.S. Special Forces and because of the skill of our pilots -- not because of the petitions of our well-meaning pacifists. Iraq will be liberated and its 26 million people given a chance of freedom because of the courage of American teenagers in Abrams tanks, not because of "concerned" professors who chanted "no blood for oil" between lattes.

Since Sept. 11, we have heard an array of invective aimed at Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and others who reminded us of these ancient, tragic truths and who told us that our democratic nation would have to use arms to restore its security and eliminate terrorists and rogue societies -- and that it would do so in an overwhelmingly successful fashion.

The events of the last two years have utterly vindicated these democratic warriors, but do not expect their critics to concede that democracies sometimes must resort to war to remove evil. You see, it is just not in their nature.

(Thanks, Peter.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 04/11/03 07:38:39 AM
Categorized as War.