Victor Davis Hanson writes:

Wars disrupt the political landscape for generations. Changes sweep nations when their youth die in a manner impossible during peace. An isolationist United States became a world power after the defeat of Japan and Germany, buoyed by the confidence of millions of returning victorious veterans. Even today the pathologies of American society cannot be understood apart from the defeat in Vietnam, as an entire generation still views the world through the warped lenses of the 1960s. In some sense, postmodern quirky France today is explicable by the humiliation of 1940 and its colonial defeats to follow.

So, too, one of the most remarkable military campaigns in American military history will shake apart the world as few other events in the last 30 years.

As evidence, consider this quote from a veteran of the antiwar movement during the Vietnam era:

"We used to like to offend people," Martha Saxton, a professor of women's studies at Amherst, said as she discussed the faculty protest with students this week. "We loved being bad, in the sense that we were making a statement. Why is there no joy now?

I came of age back then, but I never felt anything but disgust for that kind of childishness.

Both of these quotes encapsulate my main impressions of things during this war. I've written how this war has been a rebirth of the patriotism I learned when I was a boy, and the images of our troops destroying an evil regime even as they help civilians, deliver food and water, deliver babies and fight for the helpless--those images give the lie to all of the liberal doctrines that seem to have dominated our nation for the past 30 years.

I know that the "war is never justified" line will continue to be repeated. It's an article of faith for the anti-American Chomskyites, after all. If the war ends in disaster or ends well, it will have been a confirmation to me that America has a purpose in this world and that we still have brave heroes like the "greatest" generation. I don't know how long this struggle with terrorism will continue, but I hope Hanson is right, that a tide has turned, at least for a while.