Posted on 02/01/2006 10:09:49 AM PST by SirLinksalot
Buchanan defends foreign aid – for Hamas
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Posted: February 1, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 Creators Syndicate Inc.
Ever since President Bush, sometime after 9-11, converted to neoconservatism, his Middle East policy has suffered from the triple defects of that subspecies of the Right: hubris, ideology and immaturity.
Neoconservatives see the world as they wish it to be, not as it is. Like teenagers, they act on impulse and rail against the counsel of experience. "Often clever, never wise," Russell Kirk said of the breed.
Repeatedly, Bush was warned by traditional conservatives that to send a U.S. army to occupy Baghdad would engender Arab rage and Islamic terror. Heeding the "cakewalk" crowd, he refused to listen. Three years later, we are trying to extricate a U.S. army from Iraq with the least possible damage to U.S. security interests.
Prodded again by neoconservatives, Bush declared our true goal had always been to democratize Iraq and the entire Islamic world. His second Inaugural resonated less of Reagan than of Rousseau:
So, it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.
To advance the end of "tyranny in our world," Bush began to call for elections across the Middle East. Again, he and Condi were warned that if these people were allowed to vote their convictions, they might just vote to throw us out and throw the Israelis into the sea.
Now that elections have been held, what do the returns show?
Propelled into or toward power have been Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, pro-Iranian Shiite zealots in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and Hamas in Gaza and on the West Bank.
Now, Condi, who denounced Bush's predecessors back to FDR for supporting dictators while preaching democracy in the Middle East, appears about to engage in a bit of hypocrisy of her own.
After insisting Hamas be included in the elections, Condi, stunned by the results and under pressure from Israel, has declared we will cut all aid to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas takes over the government, as Hamas was elected to do.
Bush agrees. Unless Hamas surrenders its weapons, abandons all armed resistance and recognizes Israel's right to exist, we will not give 10 cents to a Palestinian Authority that has Hamas as its head. Rice is said to be pressuring Europe to do the same. Unless Hamas remakes itself into a Mideast version of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Dr. King, we terminate aid.
Before adopting this knee-jerk reaction to an election we insisted go ahead, one trusts the president, this once, will think it through.
What is likely to happen if we proceed on such a course?
If we and the Europeans cut off aid, and Israel refuses to remit to the Palestinians the taxes they collect, the Palestinians will be put through hell for voting the wrong way. The Arabs will call us hypocrites who believe in elections only if they produce the results we demand.
And who could say they are wrong?
What will Hamas do? They are not going to disarm in the face of an Israeli military that has been killing Palestinians – collateral damage, of course – at four times the rate that Palestinians have been killing Israelis. They are not going to give up their trump card and recognize Israel's right to exist before they get a Palestinian state.
What will Hamas do? Hamas will accept the cut-off of aid, seek money from the Saudis and Iranians, do their best to keep the Palestinian people fed, clothed, housed and educated, and sacrifice for their people. And Hamas will fail. And when they fail, whom do we think will be blamed? When the Palestinian people have been broken because they voted the wrong way, whom do we think they will hate?
Let me propose another course. Put Hamas on probation.
For almost a year, Hamas has held to a truce with Israel and not engaged in attacks. Let America and Europe send word that if the truce holds, if Hamas does not attack Israeli civilians, if Hamas show its first concern is, as it claims, bettering the life of the Palestinian people, we will let the aid flow. But if Hamas reignites the war, we will not finance the war. We will terminate the aid.
Make Hamas responsible for continuing the aid. And make Hamas responsible for terminating it, if it comes to that.
Understandably, the Israelis are close to hysterical over the landslide for Hamas and are on a diplomatic campaign to have all donors end all aid to a Palestinian Authority dominated by Hamas.
But that is not in our interests. It is not even in Israel's interest. For it has been Israel's behavior, and uncritical U.S. support for that behavior, that produced this victory for Hamas. To continue on that road is to arrive at, literally, a dead end.
Bush has unleashed a revolution in the Middle East, and it is everywhere bringing to power Islamic fundamentalists. Either we deal with them, or fight them or get out of the Middle East.
And to think there were actually otherwise straight thinkers that actually supported this anti-semite yahoo for President. Talk about your proverbial "What the hell were you thinking" moment.
Pat Buchanan would be treated with respect if he did not make such asinine comments. Plus, he is a not so closeted jew-hater.
Why does Pat Buchanan give the Jew-hating Hamas more benefit of the doubt than he gave to G. W. Bush in 2000?
If the leader of Hamas was named Bush, I don't think Pat would be so charitible.
What Buchanon and the state epartment crowd do not realize is that the problem IS the aid that was given in the first place! The Palestinian people would be much better off today if the EU, US and arab countries had not given a cent to the PA:
http://www.neoperspectives.com/israel_palestine_conflict.htm
In the South they say, "Even a blind hog can occaisionally find an acorn."
And people wonder why Pat is called an Anti Semite?
ON JEWS:
Buchanan referred to Capitol Hill as "Israeli-occupied territory."
(St. Louis Post Dispatch, 10/20/90)
During the Gulf crisis: "There are only two groups that are beating
the drums for war in the Middle East -- the Israeli defense ministry and
its 'amen corner' in the United States." ("McLaughlin Group," 8/26/90)
In a 1977 column, Buchanan said that despite Hitler's anti-Semitic and
genocidal tendencies, he was "an individual of great courage...Hitler's
success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an
intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness
masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood
in his path." (The Guardian, 1/14/92)
Writing of "group fantasies of martyrdom," Buchanan challenged the
historical record that thousands of Jews were gassed to death by diesel
exhaust at Treblinka: "Diesel engines do not emit enough carbon monoxide
to kill anybody." (New Republic, 10/22/90) Buchanan's columns have run in
the Liberty Lobby's Spotlight, the German-American National PAC newsletter
and other publications that claim Nazi death camps are a Zionist
concoction.
Buchanan called for closing the U.S. Justice Department's Office of
Special Investigations, which prosecuted Nazi war criminals, because it was
"running down 70-year-old camp guards." (New York Times, 4/21/87)
Buchanan was vehement in pushing President Reagan -- despite protests
-- to visit Germany's Bitburg cemetery, where Nazi SS troops were buried.
At a White House meeting, Buchanan reportedly reminded Jewish leaders that
they were "Americans first" -- and repeatedly scrawled the phrase
"Succumbing to the pressure of the Jews" in his notebook. Buchanan was
credited with crafting Ronald Reagan's line that the SS troops buried at
Bitburg were "victims just as surely as the victims in the concentration
camps." (New York Times, 5/16/85; New Republic, 1/22/96)
After Cardinal O'Connor criticized anti-Semitism during the
controversy over construction of a convent near Auschwitz, Buchanan wrote:
"If U.S. Jewry takes the clucking appeasement of the Catholic cardinalate
as indicative of our submission, it is mistaken. When Cardinal O'Connor of
New York seeks to soothe the always irate Elie Wiesel by reassuring him
'there are many Catholics who are anti-Semitic'...he speaks for himself. Be
not afraid, Your Eminence; just step aside, there are bishops and priests
ready to assume the role of defender of the faith." (New Republic,
10/22/90)
The Buchanan '96 campaign's World Wide Web site included an article
blaming the death of White House aide Vincent Foster on the Israeli
intelligence agency, Mossad -- and alleging that Foster and Hillary
Clinton were Mossad spies. (The campaign removed the article after its
existence was reported by a Jewish on-line news service; Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, 2/21/96.)
In his September 1993 speech to the Christian Coalition, Buchanan
declared: "Our culture is superior. Our culture is superior because our
religion is Christianity and that is the truth that makes men free." (ADL
Report, 1994)
The expectations by the Palestinians for Hamas' success is off the scale. They can't do anything but fail relative to the "dream".
When Hamas falls on their face, ( and they will) the Palestinians must not think we pushed them. If we have a commitment, we should honor it. Then explain future help has strings attached. If the Iranians give them money, put out the word to unemployed young Iranians that we know where their money is going - half to corrupt Mullah's, half to Arabs. That''ll thrill them...
Think of Hamas as nasty teenager who wants to blame Mom for his own screw-ups. Grab some popcorn...
The expectations by the Palestinians for Hamas' success is off the scale. They can't do anything but fail relative to the "dream".
When Hamas falls on their face, ( and they will) the Palestinians must not think we pushed them. If we have a commitment, we should honor it. Then explain future help has strings attached. If the Iranians give them money, put out the word to unemployed young Iranians that we know where their money is going - half to corrupt Mullah's, half to Arabs. That''ll thrill them...
Think of Hamas as a nasty teenager who wants to blame Mom for all screw-ups. Grab some popcorn...
You forgot to put /sarcasm at the end. Unless you believe it is acceptable to vote in a party that wants to kill off race of people?
So, in the aftermath of 9-11, we should have turned the other cheek? Sorry I don't buy it. I think Saddam got what he deserved, maybe not all of it, but enough, to date, pending the outcome of the trial. Only the perceptions of the moderate Arabs is of account - those of the zealots can only be changed at the end of a barrel/bayonet.
As to the Iraqi perception of us, I truly believe it will be just fine, as long as we are moderately successful and withdraw. We can only do so much. They must eventually pick up the responsibility and I believe they are beginning to do just that.
Second and third order effects are the result of any/all human interaction. Some foreseeable and/or good, some not and/or bad. If we hadn't acted in WWI, who knows where things may have ended up. But failing to have acted in WWII would have been catastrophic. Korea and Vietnam are a mixed bag. One might even claim the vote is still out on Korea. A pretty strong case has been made that Vietnam was only a problem because we lost political will.
I fear I would concur that isolationism is not a good thing. To suggest it is necessary because all results haven't been perfect or that all have been bad, I think is intellectually dishonest.
What do you suggest we do?
Exactly right. After all, Hugo Chavez won a democratic election, didn't he? /sarcasm
Well, this may have upset Abe Foxman, but Buchanan was on target. Western culture is superior, and Christianity is the prime ingredient of Western culture.
Yes, he does. Buchanan isn't advocating new aid for Hamas, he's saying we shouldn't cut off the aid we already committed to giving to the Palestinian Authority. If you do that, we look like hypocrites, advocating democracy except when we don't like the results. Now, I happen to believe that we shouldn't be in the democrary-exporting business in the first place, but if you've made that the rationale for America's actions in the Mideast, cutting off aid to Hamas becuase we disapprove of them certainly helps undermine that effort.
Well that was a mouth full I must say. I must congratulate you on how you were able to twist and distort and to use half truths to make it appear that Pat is anti-semitic. You seem to say that if Pat disagress with Israel or if he has an issue with Jews or the actions of some Jews then you are are anti-semitic. So you say that if you disagree with what a Jew says you immediately become a Jew hater. That is ridiculous. Buchanan has never never denied the holocaust.I could easily take what you said and turn it around and make you look anti-christian.I will however not resort to the same tactic as you did. By the way Mr.Goerbels was also good at that as well.You sir are simply wrong.
ping
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