Naval Institute Proceedings: Interview: Victor Davis Hanson

Monday, July 21st, 2003

Victor Davis Hanson makes a fascinating point in his interview with the Naval Institute Proceedings:

If the United States has singular military power, then a lot of forces in the world vie to use that power for some particular agenda. When it’s used in such a way, the United States is considered part of the global community. When it’s not, they call it unilateralism. One concrete example is when nearly 200,000 Europeans were butchered in the heart of Europe, and no European power did much of anything. Some 57 days later, the U.S. Air Force removed [Yugoslavia President] Slobodan Milosevic. Before we intervened, they were calling us isolationists. After we intervened, they were calling us interventionists. But while we were intervening, they more or less approved.

The world competes for the attention, the influence, and the use of this power. And when you combine that with envy and jealousy, it’s very hard to be popular. You never satisfy everybody.

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