Junto Boys

I was introduced to the writing of Victor Davis Hanson after September 11th. But not until I read this article did I realize what a truly interesting person he was. He's both a California farmer and professor of classical Greece. These two pursuits have made him a war hawk and populist. He rallies against agri-business and those who shy away from total war against Islamic terrorism. The feature explains how a life outside of academia has given Hanson added perspective in his life.

On September 20, 2001, this is what Hanson said about the war on terror.

The United Nations is not only as impotent as the old League of Nations, but lacks the former's idealism and has become ever more morally bankrupt. . . We cannot expect the French to remember Normandy Beach or the Germans the Berlin airlift. Indeed, most Europeans have already forgotten American intervention on their doorstep to stop the recent holocaust in the Balkans. We should neither lament nor be angered by their hypocrisy, but rather expect it, and realize what a different country America is and always has been compared to its European allies. We must be ready to be lectured by the Swedes who passed on World War II, ignored by the Swiss who profited from it, and hectored by the French who nearly lost it. America needs and welcomes friends, but the absence of such should not deter our response to avenge our own dead and protect our innocent.

Amazing. 9 Days after the Twin Towers fell, Hanson already predicted the trouble we'd have with Europe in fighting this war. In the same article he anticipated those who would say war has never solved anything.

Quite the contrary. The three greatest scourges of the 20th century — Nazism, Japanese militarism, and Soviet Communism — were defeated through war or continued military resistance. More were killed by Hitler, Stalin, and Mao outside of combat than died in World Wars I and II. . . Wickedness — whether chattel slavery, the gas chambers, or concentration camps — has rarely passed quietly into the night on its own. The present evil isn't going to either.

You can see Hanson's writings since 911 here.