Why Study War? by Victor Davis Hanson, City Journal Summer 2007
Try explaining to a college student that Tet was an American military victory. You’ll provoke not a counterargument—let alone an assent—but a blank stare: Who or what was Tet? Doing interviews about the recent hit movie 300, I encountered similar bewilderment from listeners and hosts. Not only did most of them not know who the 300 were or what Thermopylae was; they seemed clueless about the Persian Wars altogether.
The leftist pacifist nannies who currently control the US educational system are simply applying the same irrational wishful thinking they have to everything else they don’t like. If they pretend war doesn’t exist, never has existed, and even when it does occasionally happen because of the evil that is America, it is disastrous, why, maybe war will go away.
UPDATE: Instapundit.com notes the source of cockroaches like the infestation of antiwar loons in this comment thread:
BRUCE BAWER LOOKS AT THE PEACE RACKET: “We need to make two points about this movement at the outset. First, it’s opposed to every value that the West stands for—liberty, free markets, individualism—and it despises America, the supreme symbol and defender of those values. Second, we’re talking not about a bunch of naive Quakers but about a movement of savvy, ambitious professionals that is already comfortably ensconced at the United Nations, in the European Union, and in many nongovernmental organizations.” I think he doesn’t like them, and I hope that he’s exaggerating the problem.
UPDATE II: In case you’re wondering, this post received a link from Salon, which accounts for the abrupt influx of dumbasses. I’ve shut down the comments, because you can only crush fleas for so long before the whole process gets boring for everybody but the fleas, who are much pleased at the unwonted attention.
Submit to Stumbled Upon!
Of course war is a major part of American History in high school education; it is simply unavoidable. If you’re suggesting that war be studied as simply an elective course, a seminar, I doubt any school system would be opposed to it — but any elective — from music, arts, drama, debate, economics — are all suffering from underfunding and schools have barely enough to focus on the basic three R’s.
Any examination of war would, of course, discuss it’s amazing power of social change as well as its general futility and horror — The movie “300,” for example left out the fact that the Persians won, the Athenians fled the country, the Persians sacked Athens and burned the Parthenon to the ground.
Hmm, last time i checked, it was Margaret Spelling who runs the US education system, and i haven’t heard anyone accuse her of being a pacifist nanny.
And Victor Davis Hanson, as an apologist for our glorious effort in Iraq, has zero credibility, period. His point that US students don’t know enough about the history of war is of course true — they don’t know enough history of ANY kind — but he, as well as Quick, draw the wrong lesson from that. If students knew more about war history, it would lead them, and us former students to oppose the kind of doomed Imperialist war that we now have in Iraq.
Professor Hanson has learned nothing from history.
Uh oh. Who left the door to the intellectual outhouse open?
This is “irrational wishful thinking”:
The fact is that U.S. Marines will find more deadly weapons in the first hours of war than the U.N. did in three months. And by day two the world will have forgotten Dominique de Villepin and be listening instead to Tommy Franks, who will practice a different sort of diplomacy…
Victor Davis Hanson - March 18, 2003
Yes the leftist pacifist nannies were victorious in winning the battle of academia.
It is all part of their ongoing quest to contol the world and take the Christ out of Christmass. They are actually power hungry despots. Only talk radio stands in their way.
Lets recap:
[French and Indian War prior to independence]
1. War for Independence
2. First Barbary War
3. War of 1812
4. Second Barbary War
5. War for Texas Independence
6. Mexican-American War
7. Civil War
8. Spanish-American War
9. WWI
10. WWII
11. Korea
12. Vietnam
13. Persian Gulf
14. Somali Civil War
15. Yugoslav Wars
16. Afghanistan
17. Iraq War
231 years divided by 17 wars leaves an about 13.5 years between each. Assuming a lifetime of 80 years, the average American will live through almost 6 conflicts like the ones listed. Now is it sensible to ignore history?
Catching only a glimpse of the word “obvious” in the poster’s name, I thought the good Dr. So had lost his mind. Imagine my relief when i discovered it was just a similar nom de guerre — or, should I say, nom de imbecile.
As for who runs the US educational system, it is certainly not Ms. Spelling. Even if she has the title, I refuse to hold her accountable for the hilarious nonsense that passes for education these days.
dubiousraves:
I’d say Reg Weaver (President, National Education Association) has more power over education than Margaret Spelling.
The vast majority of school funding is provided by the states, not the federal government. To claim the Secretary of education runs the US education system is laughable. California has shown us that any governmental attempt at reform (banning “bilingual education”) will simply be ignored by the public school teachers and their unions.
psmarc:
Showing all but one Spartan dead is a pretty good way of showing that Xerces won the battle. However, the delay allowed the evacuation of Athens. Its people fleeing to Salamis, which was part of Greece. This along with Athens’ well fought naval campaign led to the defeat of the Persians at the Battle of Plataea a year later.
Frag, don’t expect these pathetic morons to know anything about, you know, the actual history of war and warfare. It isn’t taught in schools any more, because that will make sure that war disappears.
Well, that, and assuming we can get rid of the evil imperialistic United States - which is the real goal of these America-hating lefty dumbasses.
The righty war-mongering losers who currently control the Republicans are simply applying the same irrational wishful thinking they have to everything else. If they pretend we can win this unwinable war, pretend we’ll be greeted as liberators, and even when we don’t it’s because of the Democrats are giving comfort to the enemy, then maybe they can claim victory.
Uh, leftist “america haters” love to point out all the wars that the US has waged so we might learn from them. I’ve seen lefty profs (and high school teachers) use vietnam and Iraq as examples of the futility of war, etc…
This post’s thesis has no basis in reality…it’s just a right-wing fantasy circle-jerk session.
Also, most right wingers are quite content to bask in the victories of war while completely ignoring or disgustingly rationalizing it’s horrible costs.
I may be a leftist pacifist ninny, at least I’m not mouth-breathing mongolaid with a hardon for war-on-tv.
Actually, you drooling dumbass, we won the war in Iraq in about three weeks, from invasion to the toppling of Saddam’s statue in Baghdad. Everything since has been mop-up, and if we hadn’t been hobbled by in part by antiwarriors like you, we could probably have finished that off a couple of years ago as well.
Learn how to think, would you, you dimwitted cheerleader for the failure of the US in all things?
No maybe about it, dumbass. And at least we mongoloids know how to spell the word. I presume you’re a typical product of the current collapsed US educational system? You know nothing about history, can’t read, write, spell, or do math, think science is witchcraft, (and witchcraft science - you are a global warming fanatic, aren’t you?) and are so generally ignorant in all things except your own bloated sense of self-esteem that you think intelligent, rational folks actually give a ratfuck about you or your spit-slimed slobbering at the blogs of your intellectual, social, and cultural betters.
Damn, Bill.
That last one was harsh. Especially considering it comes from the cheeto stained keyboard of a fat, bald, out of shape wuss like yourself. Seriously, how many bullies kicked the shit out of you in high school before you discovered the Atari and never left your mommie’s basement again?
You are still there, right?
Bill, the only thing we’re “mopping up” in Iraq is the blood of our own soldiers - which mouthbreathing, anti-America, thumbsucking wannabe armchair Rambos like yourself just want to see continue as long as it isn’t your blood that’s being spilled.
what’s amazing is that the tone of mr. hansons opinion piece is far different from the tone of this thread. mr. quick is all for damning the torpedoes and proceeding full-speed. mr. hanson suggests that “…some men will always prefer war to peace; and other men, we who have learned from the past, have a moral obligation to stop them…” mr. quick would call those wise enough to have learned from the past “drooling dumbasses”. the rest of us could ignore those like him, if not for our moral obligation.
I can personally confirm, having been there, that contrary to your highly revealing fantasy, no bullies kicked anything out of Bill Quick in high school.
Quite a few people, however, learned to their dismay, that Quick was a poor choice for attack. Many today still retain permanent psychic scars from the experience, all well-earned — because Quick was no bully. He only destroyed those who asked for it. No fists needed. Just a few words, and how the big boys cried. (Reminded me a little of a benevolent Hannibal Lecter.)
Now you, on the other hand, seem to have had some personal experience with eating large volumes of shit, based on the output you can produce even today.
By all means, get into a pissing contest with Quick. The arena always enjoys the sight of fresh blood.
spilled at the hands of our own leaders — and Chamberlains like you. Since every chamberlain has a chamber pot, it is clear you have been soaking your head in yours. Try emptying it first next time. Then you might not spew so much horsepiss.
Cowardice cloaked as morality died in Munich — TWICE, you STFM.
I’ve seen lefty profs (and high school teachers) use vietnam…
No surprise there.
I can’t imagine them denying credit for an assist….
My, my, what a collection of idiots on parade we have here today.
Cowards, fuckwits, illiterates, morons, droolers, shambling failures, projectile intellectual vomiters, envious wannabes, every one of them shivering with pleasure that I let them spray what few brains they have through their bladders onto my blog.
Enjoy your fifteen minutes, you laughable pack of shit-smeared chimpanzees. Unlike your own usual, rigidly censored hangouts, I’m happy to leave your comments up as a fevered testament to the depths to which the America-hating left has sunk.
I consider it a, you know, public service.
Ooooh. Such a clever play on word nemo. Maybe next time you can do that and make one iota of sense.
You were right about one thing:
Leaders who had no plan going into this unnecessary war. Leaders who ignored their own generals about how many troops it’d take to do the job right. Leaders who have no plan on how to get out. Leaders who thought we’d be “greeted as liberators” and thought the insurgents were in their “last throes.” Leaders who have stood by and watched billions and billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of our own firearms become “lost.”
And leaders who, at almost every single turn, have been wrong about what will happen next.
If you don’t want to have so much horsepiss dumped on your head, simply shut your own mouth.
Oh. Gee. Bill. You. Showed. Me. What a coherent rebuttal.
Enjoy the brains we’re spewing on your blog. They’re the only brains you’ve got.
It makes perfectly good sense to anybody with an IQ higher than a turnip. Or you.
Matt, your head is shoved so far up your ass that every time you take a piss you lose IQ points. And, pal, youy don’t have any to spare.
At the rate you’re going, you’ve got maybe another hour before they start feeding you through tubes and talking about “permanent vegetative states.”
Rebuttal? I’m not rebutting anything, because you morons aren’t capable of being rebutted. Rebuttal requires an argument first. The only thing you’re good for is smacking around, for amusement. Which I am doing.
I guess that kinda gives me a monopoly on the brains between the two of us, then, doesn’t it?
Dumbass.
Bill, stop it. You’re killing me with your 3rd grade originality. Maybe that’s where your disdain for the educational system comes from - I can imagine after you flunked elementary school 6 or 7 times, there’s some animosity there.
Ooops. Sorry for the big word. “Animosity” means you really dislike something.
And with that definition, you also must have animosity for reality. Or intelligence. Or complicated things like reading.
No go back to your “Insults for Dummies” book and find another oh-so-painful and biting way to make yourself feel more intelligent than the social and mental zero that you are.
Wrong again Bill. I’ve got plenty to spare. But I’m happy to donate a few IQ points to raise you up to the level of a retarded hamster.
Then again, it’s kind of wasted on you. Because every time you take a crap, you get dumber.
Yawn.
Now you’re just lame.
You really shouldn’t try to affect faux condescension swhen you’ve spent the previous five or six comments burying yourself in your own idiocy right up to your eyeballs.
“Insults for Dummies?”
Jesus, you’re pathetic, although inadvertently accurate, since I am indeed insulting the hell out of a dummy who is obviously too stupid to notice what a hideous clubbing he is taking.
mr. quick,
Watching you try and work your way through a discussion is like watching a dog try and open a can of food. Sad indeed as vocabulary is a direct indicator of intelligence. As an educator I would like to offer the apologies of the entire educational system which obviously failed you.
What a dumbass. He thinks nobody even notices that now he’s just stealing my own lines, rewriting them slightly, and pretending he thunk them up all by his own self.
Did I mention “pathetic?”
Why, yes, I believe I did.
I can understand your wish to try sarcasm from your lofty post as a finger-painting instructor, but sorry, it’s just not very good sarcasm.
You and Matt share a room at the hospital or something?