One of the things I'm always looking for when I'm wasting time surfing for politics is conservative writers who piss me off in intellectually stimulating ways. It's no fun to get pissed off with nothing to say, you need stuff that makes you say "you are wrong for this reason." Which is why I am grateful for Victor Davis Hanson. He is professor of history/military science at Fresno State and writes for National Review Online. I really liked his book Ripples of Battle which talked about social and cultural effects of battles. That said, his column today is all wrong. Basically, he is saying that the screw-ups and casualties of the Iraq war are not so bad if you compare them to the screw-ups and casualties of WW2. I love historic metaphor as much as the next guy but Iraq is totally different from WW2! If we took casualties at the rate we did in Germany in 1944 then every U.S. soldier in Iraq would be dead or wounded by now. World War Two was the largest, deadliest, most terrible conflict in the history of the world, any modern conflict and casualty count would look miniscule by comparison. Also I have a real problem with this part:
In other words, Kerry and Edwards sense that Iraq has had some strange - but as yet not fully understood - positive effects that are just beginning to ripple out.
First of all, he is putting thoughts in the heads of guys, my guys in fact, that he has no basis for. I don't go saying "Bush senses that his tax policy is evil." Second, POSITIVE EFFECTS holy crap - torture, looting, car bombs, black-outs, holy shrines being damaged and did I mention the torture! There are effects radiating out, just nothing that I would call positive.
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