Victor Davis Hanson on the Iraq War Debate

Hanson demonstrates an impressive ability to step back from the various opinions and provide an overview:

So why this growing angry divide at home about Iraq? First, the war crystallized preexisting but fundamental philosophical differences among segments of the American people.

Consider all the conflicting refrains:

We are a republic, not an empire and should husband our resources for ourselves;

No, we are a pathological presence abroad and should husband and redistribute our resources for our own poor;

No, we are a constabulatory force that should not take sides per se, but rather enforce order and stability in a global commercial system of free markets and trade;

No, morally we cannot enjoy democracy at home while allowing it to die abroad;

No, realistically our ultimate security rests with as many democracies overseas as possible.

These same fault lines were emerging in 1999 with the bombing of Serbia, but were arrested by the capitulation of Milosevic and the quick conclusion to the war.