VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: “I am always amazed at the variants of anti-Americanism in Britain, France, and Germany, because beneath the convenient left-wing sermonizing one always suspects lingers nostalgic angst, of the world of preeminence before the crass ‘swaggering’ Americans took over.”

Americans “took over” only because the Europeans failed to display even the tiniest modicum of competence. We’d be much better off as mercantile competitors in a pre-1914 world, without national security worries of any consequence. Happier, too. Too bad the Euros weren’t up to the job.

UPDATE: I have to note that I’ve observed the same shift in tone from The Economist that Hanson observes lately. And this observation of his is worth quoting, too:

This cheap sermonizing of Western elites reflects two unspoken truths: privately, no well-heeled British subject would prefer the world of beheading, gender apartheid, and Sharia law that flourished in lawless Fallujah to the legal system and audit that governs the American military. And yet most understand that their own professional advancement, psychological well-being, and political acceptance come from praising the former and damning the latter.

This is a pathological situation, and it’s too bad to see that it obtains at The Economist as well as the BBC and Le Monde.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Francisco Moreno emails:

I am 37. I devoutly read the Economist from age 17. Sadly, the magazine has ceased to be fair.

I cancelled our subscription last year for this very reason, and wrote to the editor about it.

I’ve noticed this phenomenon mostly in the last couple of months, myself.