Hypocrisy

The Chicago Tribune recently ran a commentary written by Victor Davis Hanson on the "nonsensical" bashing of the Bush administration by pampered actors and entertainers. While there are several points that I don't entirely disagree with, there are several places where this guy is way out there. So, I decided to do a little checking into this guy and learn a little about his special creditials.

He has his degrees (BA and PhD) in "Classical Studies" - whatever that is. He has written or contributed to such scintillating works as Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece, Hoplites: The Ancient Greek Battle Experience, and The Wars of the Ancient Greeks. So far, I'm not really impressed.

Before he joined the faculty at Cal State - Fresno, he was a farmer. Nothing against farmers or farming, but still not seeing the connections.

Then I just Googled him and found out he's a darling of the far right. He has published dozens of rants and those extremists love him for it. In one, it was claimed that he is a lifelong Democrat, disillusioned with where the party has gone in recent years. (Can't say I disagree on that point.)

So I came to realize this guy's celebrity came from Limbaugh-esque rants, so it started to make a bit more sense. But why would a Democrat go so completely berserk?

So I dug some more, and found out that he is a Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. The governing board of this august body included such right-wing luminaries as Edwin Meese and Donald Rumsfeld. So he gets a big paycheck as a Fellow at an ultra-conservative think tank - now his writings and commentaries come into focus. In order to keep his bosses happy - and to keep the big paychecks coming - he has to spout this stuff.

One of the points that he makes often, and which I will take him to task on, is that entertainment celebrities are uninformed and, by virtue of their celebrity, trying to be historical revisionists. Quoting directly from the Trib commentary, but available in nearly identical wording in many places: "The United States took out the Taliban in seven weeks, Saddam Hussein in three. Despite a difficult insurrection, there is a democratic government in Iraq. Yet the movie star George Clooney pontificated, 'We can't beat anyone anymore.'"

NOW who's uninformed and revisionist. Oh, that's right, this administration and its apologists - like you.

We invaded Afghanistan after 9/11 to take out the terrorists that attacked us and its leadership. Al Qaeda was the organization in Afghanistan that we went after when they claimed responsibility. Yet Osama bin Laden, its leader, is still free. And there is enough infrastructure left in that organization to carry out coordinated bombings in London just a week ago. I kinda think we didn't beat THEM. We took out a sympathetic regime harboring them - the Taliban. But the terrorists - our original target if one is truthful about how the invasion of Afghanistan was sold to the American public - is still around. Afghanistan, outside of the major cities, is still largely governed by local warlords and Al Qaeda.

Now let's talk about Iraq. The original justification for war there was Weapons of Mass Destruction. Remember those? I do. The adminstration claimed intelligence that WMD were either in place or so close to being completed that we needed to invade a sovereign nation and prevent their dispersal.

How many WMD have been found?? NONE. ZERO. ZILCH. NADA. The entire premise for war was a fantasy. Asterick went into Iraq to clean up where Daddy didn't finish during his presidency.

Since there are no WMD, there has been a series of deliberate efforts to change the scope and nature of the Occupation. Now we point to the first democratically-elected Muslim government in the region as the Great Accomplishment. In all likelihood at the end of all this, that will lead to further destabilization in the region, not less.

As I said before - now who's revisionist? You with your PhD may be all learned 'n' stuff compared to those entertainment goofs - some of whom haven't even finished an undergraduate degree according to your commentary. So you're obviously SOOO much better by virtue of your "Classical Studies".

But at least tell the truth in your tirades Mr. Hanson. Don't be like the rest of the adminstration pukes. You are - or at least were at some point - an educator and apparently a free-thinker. Continue thinking for yourself. But no, you probably won't. Not with the big paychecks you probably get from the pit bulls on the right. "Don't bite the hand that feeds you".

I do have to ask, though. What do you do for fun? If you can't stand celebrities and their positions, then I am sure you don't listen to much music or watch TV or movies.

Oh, that's right. You're working on your own next blockbuster book - something about Peloponnesian war atrocities or something.

Why don't you just stick to that, since that's where YOUR credentials lie.