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49 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Profound, witty, audaciously incorrect and well-written, December 4, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terrorism (Paperback)
This is a really great book--penetrates the psycho-babble and punditry that serves as analysis of the problem of radical islam. Hanson is unapologetic; he is a military historian and professor of the classics with a deep understanding of the West, and a long view of history and warfare. If you read the introduction, you will be hooked on his style, which is unpretentious--it makes you realize that much of the analysis on terrorism, even be learned and experienced people, is just wrong. More importantly, it will cost more lives in the future. He convincingly compares the dithering before the Second World War to the high-society Euro-intellectuals of the day--people (unfortunately) like Colin Powell, who, upon the U.S. attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan commented that we might strike deals with the "moderate" Taliban. This of course begs the question--What is a moderate Taliban? That's like saying a "moderate Nazi." Sometimes, the shortest route to end the bloodshed is to obliterate your foe, and that is what he calls for--reducing the specter of al qaeda and the Taliban to a realistic threat. In the process, he takes a lot of hot air out of the chattering classes, college professors and policy wonks. Still, this is not a polemic and it is well written--comparable in depth to Robert D. Kaplan, Donald Kagan or Robert Kagan--if you like them, you will like him. Because this is a series of editorials, there tends to be a little repeating, but still a well-deserved five stars.
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70 of 87 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hanson Makes Me Proud To Be An American!, October 23, 2002
This review is from: An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terrorism (Paperback)
Anyone familiar with the writing of Victor Davis Hanson, a professor of classics and journalist, knows his views on the subject of this book. He is a passionate defender of American greatness, hates the tyrants of the world with all his soul and has nothing but scorn for the appeasers and bashers of America among the intellectual elite. All these views are well amplified in this book, a collection of essays published, mainly in National Review Online, between September 12 and December 31, 2001. The topics are far ranging and the tones of the essays vary considerably. In many, Hanson writes with an eloquent passion in defense of Western civilization and Western values. Indeed, his words may be called Churchillian. (One essay is entitled "What Would Churchill Say" and liberally quotes the great man.) In other essays, Hanson envokes important military figures from the past such as Sherman to demonstrate his view that the great Western nations go to war reluctantly but with an unrelenting savage fury. Other essays are satirical in tone including one in which he imagines the modern media covering the Doolittle raid on Tokyo. The most inventive essay is one in which he conducts an "interview" with Thucydides, the great chronicler of the Peloponesian War by interposing questions about the war on Islamic fascism with actual quotations (complete with citations) from Thucydides himself. Hanson is no lightweight pundit. The man is a brilliant scholar filled with passionate yet truthful opinions. He amply supports those opinions through the exploration of history. This excellent book is a welcome antidote to the venom produced by the left and the pablum produced by most of our punditocracy. Hanson fills me with pride in being an American. His writing is never jingoistic but always passionate and patriotic. If you feel pessimistic and think maybe America's day has passed, read this book. It will make you feel better.
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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reasoned, Prescient on the Terrorism War, September 14, 2002
This review is from: An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terrorism (Paperback)
Victor Davis Hanson is a premier military historian, and in the aftermath of 9/11, he has emerged as one of the most incisive analysts of the War on Terrorism as well. "An Autumn of War" is a collection of Hanson's contemporaneous writings over the four months from 9/11 through the U.S. victory in Afghanistan and the formation of the Karzai government in Kabul. Hanson's essays -- grounded in his military history background --offer trenchant insight and remarkable prescience in foretelling events to come. To cite one of many examples, an early November Hanson essay posits that Okinawa, rather than Vietnam, is the most apt analogy for the fortified cave fighting in Afghanistan. This came at a time when so-called informed opinion -- devoid of meaningful historical perspective -- was hysterically, fatuously and irresponsibly drawing Vietnam parallels, and prematurely speculating about quagmires. (See R.W. Apple's infamous "news analysis" in The New York Times on October 31, 2001.) With reason, keen insight and historical grounding, Hanson asserts that the U.S.'s lack of preparedness and irresolution in the face of mounting terrorist provocations made us vulnerable to the alQaeda attacks on New York and Washington, and offers a compelling argument for achieving total victory -- and not merely partial retribution -- in the ongoing War on Terrorism (including Iraq). With the one-year anniversary once again riveting a spotlight on the 9/11 horror, a reading of "An Autumn of War" should be part of any thorough retrospective.
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