Why We Should Study War with Victor Davis Hanson | Policy Stories — Transcript

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1. 0:04when I was a graduate student some 40
2. 0:06years ago military history had already
3. 0:09become unfashionable on campus and the
4. 0:11academic neglect of war is even more
5. 0:13acute today military history is a
6. 0:15discipline has atrophied with very few
7. 0:18professorships Journal articles or
8. 0:20degree programs after the Carnage and
9. 0:22savagery of the 20th Century's world
10. 0:24wars leaders and governments attempted
11. 0:27to refashion International politics with
12. 0:29therapetic organizations to make war a
13. 0:31thing of the past the League of Nations
14. 0:34and the United Nations both fostered the
15. 0:36hope that Global cooperation would lead
16. 0:37to Collective Security and international
17. 0:39order nuclear weapons and mutually
18. 0:42assured destruction were supposed to
19. 0:44make future conflicts Unthinkable yet
20. 0:46our world today is as violent and
21. 0:48conflict ridden as ever and whether we
22. 0:50like it or not the central issue in our
23. 0:52life is whether we are going to have a
24. 0:54war therefore studying military history
25. 0:57is in essence an attempt to prevent it
26. 0:59or at least aerate its catastrophic
27. 1:02effects the importance and challenge of
28. 1:04the academic study of war is to elevate
29. 1:07general interest into a more serious and
30. 1:10widespread understanding one that seeks
31. 1:13answers to such questions as why do Wars
32. 1:15break out how do they end why do the
33. 1:18winners win and the losers lose how best
34. 1:21to avoid Wars or contain their worst
35. 1:24effects a wartime public illiterate
36. 1:27about the conflicts of the past can
37. 1:28easily find it self paralyzed in the
38. 1:31acrimony of the present without
39. 1:33standards of historical comparison it
40. 1:35will prove ill equipped to make informed
41. 1:37judgments this concept dates back to at
42. 1:39least 400 BC when thides wrote his
43. 1:42history of the pelian war by studying
44. 1:45that war thides believe people would be
45. 1:47better prepared to interpret future
46. 1:49conflicts human nature emotions and
47. 1:51rhetoric remain constant over the
48. 1:53centuries and are thus generally
49. 1:55predictable indeed By ignoring history
50. 1:58the modern age is free to interpr war is
51. 2:00a failure of communication or of
52. 2:02diplomacy as if aggressors don't know
53. 2:05exactly what they're doing yet it's hard
54. 2:07to find many wars that result from
55. 2:10miscommunication far more often they
56. 2:12break out because of ill intent and the
57. 2:14absence of deterrence military history
58. 2:17is as often the story of appeasement as
59. 2:19of warmongering the destructive military
60. 2:22careers of Alexander the Great Caesar
61. 2:25Napoleon and Hitler would all have ended
62. 2:27early had any of the numerous enemies
63. 2:29United when the odds favored them
64. 2:32Western societies have often been
65. 2:33reluctant to use Force to prevent
66. 2:35greater future violence in the 21st
67. 2:38century it's easier than ever to succumb
68. 2:41to technological determinism the idea
69. 2:44that science new weaponry and
70. 2:46globalization have altered the very
71. 2:48rules of War but the study of War tells
72. 2:50us that it's highly doubtful that a new
73. 2:53weapon will emerge from the Pentagon or
74. 2:54anywhere else that will change the very
75. 2:56nature of armed conflict finally
76. 2:59military history has the moral purpose
77. 3:01of educating us about past sacrifices
78. 3:04that have secured our present freedom
79. 3:05and security if we know nothing of
80. 3:08Shiloh Verdun and okanawa the crosses in
81. 3:11our military cemeteries are just
82. 3:13Pleasant white stones on lush green
83. 3:15Lawns the United States was born through
84. 3:18War reunited by War and saved from
85. 3:21destruction by war no future generation
86. 3:24however comfortable and affluent should
87. 3:27Escape that terrible knowledge what then
88. 3:29can do to restore the study of War to
89. 3:31its proper place in the Life of the
90. 3:33American mind the challenge isn't just
91. 3:35to reform The Graduate School or the
92. 3:37professorate well that would help on a
93. 3:40deeper level we need to reexamine the
94. 3:42larger forces that have devalued the
95. 3:44very idea of military history we must
96. 3:47abandon naive faith that with enough
97. 3:49money education or good intentions we
98. 3:52can change the nature of mankind so that
99. 3:55conflict as if by fit becomes a thing of
100. 3:58the past in the end the study of War
101. 4:00reminds us that we are men not Gods some
102. 4:04men will always prefer War to peace and
103. 4:06other men who have learned from the past
104. 4:09have a moral obligation to stop them
105. 4:25[Music]