Terrible Swift Sword - Victor

Terrible Swift Sword - Victor Davis Hanson writes this superb article about democracy's record in war.

Tyrants write us off in advance - and, the record shows, at their own peril.

The article is chock full of great observations. I like this one in particular:

It is easy to libel William Tecumseh Sherman and his terrible march through Georgia in autumn 1864, which covered about the same 300-mile distance through the heart of enemy territory as the present roll from Kuwait to Baghdad. But Sherman's exuberant army of Midwestern yeomen freed 40,000 slaves, killed no more than 600 Southern youth and targeted the icons of the Confederacy and the plantations of the secessionists. His critics, even at the time, protested that the use of force was inconsistent with the values of a liberal society. But Sherman called that "bottled piety" because they never explained how an evil like slavery or, we might add, Saddam Hussein is to be removed without violence.

Read the whole...er, you know.

Posted by Mitch at April 10, 2003 08:36 AM