Victor Davis Hanson has an article on today’s RealClearPolitics, entitled “America is Not Post-Anything”.

The piece is full of sentiments that sensible TAC readers would abhor, yet one bit struck me as especially foul:

The good news, aside from the fact that Americans have never had it so good, is that… The Persian Gulf looks more like Las Vegas than the badlands of Waziristan.

Here’s Las Vegas,

And here’s Southern Waziristan,

You don’t have to be Percy Bysshe Shelley to see that Waziristan is somewhat prettier. And while I should admit that I would infinitely prefer to wager with my wallet in Vegas than gamble with my life in rural Pakistan, it seems wrong–even a little perverse–to celebrate the fact the Persian Gulf is turning into a consumerist Disneyland.