Pat Buchanan: Might the Arabs Have a Point?

The American Conservative ^ | 16 January 2006 | Patrick J. Buchanan

[Poser]

Pat went off the deep end years ago. I refuse to read his rants.

[Txsleuth]

We are always told to be very leery of polls taken here in the USA....so, I really can't put much stock in a poll taken from EGYPT!!!

However, just like the distaste I feel when I hear one of our Supreme Court justices quoted "foreign law"...I feel even more distaste having an ex-presidential candidate...

and media whore...PUSHING those poll results as a reason to HATE OUR PRESIDENT AND COUNTRY!!!

[LS]

Actually, several years ago I forced myself in the summer to read all 800 some pages of "Mein Kampf." But you have to know what is in there to know how to counter it.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

Is Pat saying that our goal should be to be loved by the Arabs, therefore we drop our support of Israel? Without US support, like the tanks we sent Israel in 1972, Israel might not exist today. Does Pat think that is admirable policy?
Of course our policy there is influenced by our need for oil. However, we PAY FOR IT. We are not neo-colonalists. We even bought oil from Saddam when he was in power.
THE PROBLEM IS ISLAMIC EXTEMISM and how it threatens us. PAT seems to have forgotten 911.

[Mo1]

I guess it's safe to say that Pat Buchanann agrees with the President of Iran

Hey Pat ... if it wasn't obvious before ... it is now .. you hate the jews

[Txsleuth]

I have been flamed many times on FR...for calling Pat what he is: an anti-semite...

He has his fans....

[Mo1]

Pat Buchanan is a disgusting POS

[Darksheare]

Yes.
And that is an understatement.

[saveliberty]

Thanks for the ping, Txsleuth!

Zogby has a reputation for inaccurate polling in this country. I am very suspicious of who was polled in these countries -- was it leaders, regular folk, just who?

It also does not take into account that in the named countries it can be on pain of death to say something that can be construed as critical of their government.

Zogby polls pretty far to the left in this country. I think that he may have been looking for a particular conclusion in his Middle East poll.

I don't think that I have illusions. The Middle East has known only one basic way and that's pretty much the way life is down there. So we are not the heros.

But I do know that 200,000 Jordanians protested in the streets of Amman Jordan when Zawahiri had bombed the wedding party. And I do remember reading that after the first elections in Iraq and the elections in the Palestinian authority came, there was tremendous pressure on Egypt to open their political system more.

And I do know that before the war, Iraqis were hoping for the Americans to liberate them. A great story was documented by the minister who went to be a human shield and was overwhelmed by the persuasion by the taxi driver that almost every Iraqi wanted this war and the Iraqis knew that the Americans are good.

Had it not been for what we are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq, it would have been unthinkable to exert effective pressure on Syria to start withdrawing from Lebanon.

It's not a pretty picture, but it's necessary. We've tried the diplomacy of 16th century courtesans and talk gets us nowhere. And the brutes continue to behave as brutes but get well fed at the UN. We're done.

Now Pat may be a nice man who means well, but he always winds up aiming for Smoot-Hawley part deux, and that's not a smart direction for a myriad of reasons.

[Txsleuth]

Check this article out, guys!

[msnimje]

Arabs might but I am sure Pat does not.

[MikefromOhio]

I'm surprised his Donner Party compatriots aren't coming to his defense.

Actually there has been only ONE so far

[msnimje]

Correction, I meant to say: "Arabs might NOT but I am sure Pat does not."

[stevem]

Disclaimer: I like Pat Buchanan. I always have and likely always will.

Now...regarding the Middle East I disagree with Buchanan almost all the time. For some reason, he has a knee jerk antithesis toward Israel. I sometimes think the closest friend he ever had in the world must have been killed on the USS Liberty. Since that time he has never felt Israel can do anything decent, even by accident.

Whatever the reason, he hates Israel far more than the most virulent Islamist or Nazi that ever lived. With that yardstick, he will always side with any Arab "street" which makes it easy for him to see any point in the Middle East that diminishes Israel and, by association, the US.

I think my theory regarding Buchanan has as much validity as any he has regarding the state of Middle Eastern affairs.

P.S. I like Buchanan but am thankful he never attained any true power as a puppeteer.

[Blzbba]

"I dont think Israel is anyones "boy""


Agreed. If anything, America is Israel's puppet. They ask for money and the only thing we ask is "How much?"

[Txsleuth]

I am surprised he/she hasn't gone and found more buddies to help....

[Luke21]

Right when I think Pat has regained his sanity, he writes this crap.

[TSchmereL]

Patrick J. Buchanan is one sick Jew-blaming bastard. Of course every Arab fascist state hates Israel! They are a bunch of Jew hating bastards, too! Pat wants us to "understand" them . . . because Pat wants us to understand him.

Feeding your friends to the wolves will protect you from being eaten by wolves, but only for a little while. When the wolves get hungry again, you will merely have to deal with them without any friends.

[MikefromOhio]

me too....

but if they want to remain hidden, I am sure we will catch up with them on their next WalMart bashing thread or whatever comes up next.....

[RightWhale]

No, the Arabs do not have a point. Oil is the reason there is such a large population in the desert of the ME, but the US is not the major buyer of that oil. Japan, Europe, China, and India are the main customers for that oil. The US could easily build uranium power plants instead of importing Arab oil, so the pre-emption of the terror base of the ME is not about oil. It could be argued that the presence of the US in the ME is a proxy for these other oil-importing countries.