WISDOM – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 8:24 A.M. ET:  Since September 11, 2001, several voices have been consistently wise and knowledgeable in commenting on current affairs and linking the present to the past.  One such voice is Victor Davis Hanson.  He provides our quote of the day, about the continuing value of blunt military deterrence.  From NRO: 

...disputes over honor or from fear do not always lead to war. Something else is needed — an absence of deterrence. Most aggressors take stupid risks in starting wars only when they feel there is little likelihood they will be stopped. Hitler thought no one would care whether he gobbled up Poland, after he easily ingested Czechoslovakia and Austria.

Saddam Hussein went into Kuwait believing the U.S. did not intervene in border disputes among Arab countries. Deterrence, alliances, and balances of power are not archaic concepts that “accidentally” triggered World War I, as we are sometimes told. They are the age-old tools of advising the more bellicose parties to calm down and get a grip.

What ends wars?

Not the League of Nations or the United Nations. Unfortunately, war is a sort of cruel laboratory experiment whose bloodletting determines which party, in fact, was the stronger all along. Once that fact is again recognized, peace usually follows.

And...

If deterrence and military readiness seem such a wise investment, why do democracies so often find themselves ill-prepared and bullied by aggressors who then are emboldened to start wars?

It is hard for democratic voters to give up a bit of affluence in peace to ensure that they do not lose it all in war. It is even harder for sophisticated liberal thinkers to admit that after centuries of civilized life, we still have no better way of preventing Neanderthal wars than by reminding Neanderthals that we have the far bigger club — and will use it if provoked.

COMMENT:  That is wisdom, but you may be sure that Victor Davis Hanson will never be invited to join an Ivy League faculty.  Such a disruptive, upsetting thinker.

The American people are now relearning lessons of the past, at least some of them are.  I wish we had a president who is among the students.

September 5, 2014