THE TRUE REALISTS – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:  Robert Kagan joins Victor Davis Hanson in warning Americans that the lessons of history cannot be ignored, as we maneuver through this age of new threats.   Yearning for peace does not create peace.  Hatred of war never stopped a war.  Kagan, in The Wall Street Journal – gives us our quote of the day:

The wise men and women of our own time insist that this history is irrelevant. They tell us, when they are not announcing America's irrevocable decline, that our adversaries are too weak to pose a real threat, even as they pile victory upon victory. Russia is a declining power, they argue. But then, Russia has been declining for 400 years. Can declining powers not wreak havoc? Does it help us to know that, in retrospect, Japan lacked the wealth and power to win the war it started in 1941?

Let us hope that those who urge calm are right, but it is hard to avoid the impression that we have already had our 1931. As we head deeper into our version of the 1930s, we may be quite shocked, just as our forebears were, at how quickly things fall apart.

COMMENT: It's even worse when the president of the United States doesn't know when they're falling apart, or may not care.

Those Americans who push for non-involvement, neutrality, or unilateral disarmament never quite grasp that we actually have enemies, and they do indeed think differently on matters of war and peace.

September 6, 2014