Victor Davis Hanson: (Even a Few) Words Matter
[Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author, most recently, of The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern.]
Why, after a horrendous war with Iran, would Saddam Hussein have risked another one with Kuwait? Perhaps because he believed that the United States would not stop him. That was a logical inference when American ambassador April Glaspie told him, “We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. . . . The Kuwait issue is not associated with America.”
Saddam invaded a little over a week later.
These examples could be expanded and serve as warnings. In the last 18 months, the Obama administration has made a number of seemingly insignificant remarks and gestures — many well-intended and reasoned — that might be interpreted as a new U.S. indifference to aggression....
Turkey is growing increasingly anti-American. A newly aggressive Russia is beaming that we have caved on a number of contentious issues....
Even little words and gestures still matter in high-stakes international relations. Bad actors look hard for even the smallest sign that they might get away with aggression without consequences....
Read entire article at National Review
Why, after a horrendous war with Iran, would Saddam Hussein have risked another one with Kuwait? Perhaps because he believed that the United States would not stop him. That was a logical inference when American ambassador April Glaspie told him, “We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. . . . The Kuwait issue is not associated with America.”
Saddam invaded a little over a week later.
These examples could be expanded and serve as warnings. In the last 18 months, the Obama administration has made a number of seemingly insignificant remarks and gestures — many well-intended and reasoned — that might be interpreted as a new U.S. indifference to aggression....
Turkey is growing increasingly anti-American. A newly aggressive Russia is beaming that we have caved on a number of contentious issues....
Even little words and gestures still matter in high-stakes international relations. Bad actors look hard for even the smallest sign that they might get away with aggression without consequences....