The Patriot Post® · Rhetorical Arrows

Victor Davis Hanson: “The U.S. has now shot so many rhetorical arrows that its quiver of indignation is empty – and the world’s troublemakers may know it. An administration that ignores almost all of its own Obamacare deadlines surely cannot expect others to abide by any timetables it sets abroad. … In the mind of Vladimir Putin, today Ukraine, tomorrow the Baltic States or Eastern Europe. For the Iranian theocrats, if chemical WMD are OK in Syria, why not nuclear WMD in Iran? For China, when Japan backs off, why shouldn’t Taiwan, South Korea or the Philippines? Such a seemingly insignificant loss of deterrence is how wars often start – when an aggressive nation bets that loud words signal that consequences will never follow. So it is emboldened to up the ante to try something even riskier. America’s step-over line/deadline/red line outrage is long past monotonous and empty – and the result has been an ever scarier world.”