Victor Davis Hanson is my age. He is a phenomenal writer, a student of the Mediterranean and Middle East, and has a clear analytical mind. We have one thing in common.
He writes excellent essays, and his latest is The Mirror of Fallujah
If we are to try to bring some good to the Middle East, then we must first have the intellectual courage to confess that for the most part the pathologies embedded there are not merely the work of corrupt leaders but often the very people who put them in place and allowed them to continue their ruin.
He details many points which have been made by others, but does it all in his own, stylish, way. And in doing so, adds a different perspective.
With a lot of practice, I hope to someday have more in common with him than year of birth.
(Hat tip Big Trunk.)