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VDH: The Bright Side
If you don’t read Victor Davis Hanson, you should. If you want to understand the Middle East, you must. As a historian, Professor Hanson has a way of setting things in their proper context.
VDH makes sense of it all again today at NRO. For all the nattering from the nabobs of negativity on Iraq, some things are undeniable.
First, we are “taking a terrible toll on the jihadists.” We are killing thousands of guys who, if they weren’t trying to defeat us in Iraq, would be devising ways to attack us here.
As for Iran and Syria, the twin towers of terrorism in the Middle East, things are not very rosey:
. . . Theocratic Iran is not exactly as “empowered†as is generally alleged, but in the greatest crisis of its miserable existence. As the mullahs up the ante in the region, they could very soon not only lose Iraq, but also their own dictatorship. Trying to oppose the West in Iraq, Lebanon, and the West Bank is taking an enormous financial toll, as is the general isolation from the world community.
. . . Syria for all its terror still can’t overthrow the government in Lebanon, but has managed the impossible: Not only does the Arab world seek to isolate it, but France and the United States are cooperating to thwart it in Lebanon. The last thing we want to do is to give its terror industry the legitimacy it craves by sending any more officials over to Damascus.
The professor concludes today’s lesson:
Because violence per se is the only narrative from the Middle East, and often editorialized as deriving from U.S. blunders, we are in a state of constant depression. But things are not as bad as they seem, and could still turn out far better than anyone might imagine — if we give the gifted Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker the support and time they need to make the necessary military and diplomatic changes.
As we are pointing out daily on this site, there is no reason for depression. The mainstream media template and the defeatist talking points on Iraq are simply wrong. Through the vision and leadership of Gen. Petraeus and the commitment and courage of the American Military we will defeat the enemy in Iraq.
Give Gen. Petraeus time. In other words, support The Surge!