America Needs a New Foreign Policy

Human Events ^ | 25 December 2005 | Patrick J. Buchanan

[rdb3]

For starters, the United States of America is not an empire. It never has been, and never will be.

For if the Iraqi insurgency has done nothing else, it has induced a sense of humility, and of the limits of American power.

Humility? If I didn't know any better, he sounds like he's happy that we were apparently "humbled." We're not.

Is this generation of Americans really up to the task? Is it really willing to pay indefinitely in blood and treasure to realize the ambitious agenda George W. Bush has set out?

There's that shopworn, hackneyed, boilerplate again, actively sewing the seeds of doubt. Has it ever occurred to Pat that if we would have taken care of business during the Persian Gulf war (the one where he stood against), we would not be in Iraq today? He has thousands of questions, yet he can never ask that one.

Half the nation wants out. Is this how a mighty empire reacts to a little adversity?

Your question begs another one: Who is this half?

So on and so forth. This one is easily vanquished point by point.

Merry Christmas everyone!

[Bahbah]

Merry Christmas, rdb3.

[thoughtomator]

There's only one point to refute, the central point of his article...

However Iraq ends, the era that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall has reached its close.

That he would even write such a thing should be an embarassment in the extreme. The "era that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall" ended on 9/11/2001. Any conception of modern foreign policy that does not flow from this understanding is fatally flawed.

[Dallas59]

9/11/2001..2700 people died and not all of them Americans. They were of all faiths and nationalities. They were killed because they were not adhering to a specific religion...Islam .

[Dane]

Pat has offically become a defeatist DUmmie.

[.cnI redruM]

Why is PJB ever posted here sans barf alert?

[mainepatsfan]

It's striking how many people seem to regard 9/11 as if it were a natural disaster.

[thoughtomator]

And Hurricane Katrina as if it were man-made.

[JohnD9207]

Is this how a mighty empire reacts to a little adversity?

A LITTLE ADVERSITY???? Tell that to the families of the 3000 folks who died on 9/11 butt wipe.

[ChadGore]

I propose a simple 2 pronged approach.

A) Treat our allies wonderfully.

B) Treat our declared enemies like crap.

[West Coast Conservative]

More bile from Buchanan. He sounds more like an anti-American liberal than a "true" conservative.

[Rennes Templar]

Me thinks Pat had too much egg-nogg.

[Edit35]

Buchanan's brain must not be getting enough oxygen.

He claims that the Iraqi invasion proves the limits of American power and influence.

WRONG!

To me, and I'm sure millions of Americans, Arabs, and others ..... it proves the POWER of America and of American ideals that a Muslim country has even gotten THIS far in becoming a republic democracy.

[mainepatsfan]

I guess Pat's solution to Pearl Harbor would have been to pull what was left of the Pacific fleet back to SF and impose more tariffs on Japan.

[Hardastarboard]

For starters, the United States of America is not an empire. It never has been, and never will be. So on and so forth. This one is easily vanquished point by point.

Actually, being as this is Pat Buchanan's writing, we can pretty much dismiss him out of hand. Your point about the US not being an empire is one I will agree with vehemently, however.

PJB is obssessed with something that doesn't even exist. I can almost see "WMD", "Halliburton", and all the bizarre liberal conspiracy catchwords in tiny letters in Pat's wrtings. He really needs to go on medication or something.

[G.Mason]

"America Needs a New Foreign Policy"

That's right ... It's called colonization.

Merry Christmas Christians!

[MinuteGal]

To think I once donated campaign money to this jerk. He's really lost it.

Along with Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell, Barbara Walters and other big mouths who cling to the drapes forever, he's one of life's obnoxious people I wish would JUST GO AWAY!

Leni

[wolfpat]

...that a Muslim country has even gotten THIS far in becoming a republic democracy
And this fast.

[Phsstpok]

Pat has offically become a defeatist DUmmie.

Pat has been an obvious anti-American ever since he accepted a job from Ted Turner as a performing monkey on CNN. He is a willing tool of the hate-America crowd from any persuasion.

I've always been quick to judge how A) honest or B) smart someone was by whether or not they labeled or accepted the labeling of this clown as a "conservative." Sometimes I've been wrong and the people were simply ignorant, which always amazed me. All you have to do is read what he writes or listen to what he says, not what some so called pundit says about him.

This piece is consistent with almost everything I've ever seen or heard from him. Even when he praises a conservative it's usually done in a fashion that slimes that person by association.

[trek]

"Is it not thus apparent the world does not really want an American empire, or American hegemony, or Bush's "democratic revolution"?"

Don't be so fast to dismiss Pat. You cannot ignore the arguments he lays out in the piece. But I have a one word answer to the question raised above:

YET!

The world has not really confronted the truly horrible consequences of the red/islamo-fascist alliance. Once these madmen achieve some success the world will come crying for our help. Let's hope we will be up to the challenge. Otherwise it will be a 1000 years of darkness... Merry Christmas.