Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos.
Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. With two large theater wars raging, one in Ukraine and one in the Middle East, maybe it’s time just to pause for a few minutes and reflect on the historic nature of war.
Traditionally, the way that political differences were settled—the aggressor versus the invaded—was by defeating the enemy through superior force. Not proportional force, not symmetrical, but asymmetrical and disproportionate force. Forcing them to either surrender or to forcibly destroy their means of opposition. And then humiliating them and subjecting them to political reform.
That’s how the Civil War ended. Unconditional surrender. Ulysses Grant…
