Patrick J. Buchanan

June 28, the day in 2004 that the Americans transferred sovereignty to Iraqis and proconsul Paul Bremer hastily departed Baghdad, is a day freighted with historic significance. On June 28, 1914, 90 years before, Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip fired the shots that killed the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and led, five weeks later, to World … Continue reading “Three Steps to Sanity”

There exists “no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States.” There were contacts between al-Qaeda and Iraq, but “they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship.” In 1994, Baghdad rebuffed approaches from bin Laden to establish terrorist training camps inside Iraq. So the 9-11 commission has … Continue reading “The Wrong War”

Would Ronald Reagan have invaded Iraq? Would he have declared a doctrine of preventive war to keep any rival nation from rising to where it might challenge us? Would he have crusaded for “world democratic revolution”? Was Reagan the first neoconservative? This claim has been entered in the wake of his death. Yet, it seems … Continue reading “Was Reagan the First Neoconservative?”

Fourteen months ago, after the 3rd Infantry Division and Marines swept into Baghdad, Washington was at the feet of the neoconservatives who had been plotting and propagandizing for an invasion for years. A celebratory breakfast was held at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, where William Kristol, Richard Perle and Michael Ledeen held forth in … Continue reading “The Dog Days of the War Party”

America may be heading home from Iraq sooner than many of us realize. For the implied message of the president’s address at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., is that America wants out of Iraq. Rereading that speech, one finds in it little of Churchill’s “We-shall-fight-them-on-the-beaches” defiance. Rather, the president laid out a five-step … Continue reading “Has Bush Become a Realist?”

“Nitwit pundits and Sunday morning television sages, with that faked look of thoughtfulness which is their trademark, talk about an exit strategy – as if it were just one more Mapquest printout. But any such exit strategy will lead us only on a short path to hell.” So writes Tony Blankley, editorial editor at The … Continue reading “Escalation vs. Exit: The Costs of Both”

“So, how do we advance the cause of female emancipation in the Muslim world?” asks Richard Perle in An End to Evil. He replies, “We need to remind the women of Islam ceaselessly: Our enemies are the same as theirs; our victory will be theirs as well.” Well, the neoconservative cause “of female emancipation in … Continue reading “What Does America Offer the World?”

With pictures of the sadistic sexual abuse of Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison still spilling out onto the front pages, it is not too early to draw some conclusions. The neoconservative hour is over. All the blather about “empire,” our “unipolar moment,” “Pax Americana” and “benevolent global hegemony” will be quietly put on a shelf … Continue reading “A Time for Truth”

On some cable networks, they were comparing it to the Battle of Stalingrad, which is absurd. At Stalingrad, 500,000 Red Army soldiers died along with 147,000 Germans. Another 91,000 Germans surrendered, few of them ever to be seen again. No, Fallujah was no Stalingrad. It was not even first Bull Run in 1861, where society … Continue reading “The Meaning of Fallujah”

At Versailles in 1919, delegates of four of the five victorious powers arrived with cold, clear ideas of what they must bring home. Japan demanded and got Germany’s islands north of the equator and Shantung in China. Italy demanded and got the Austrian South Tyrol, but was denied Fiume on the Adriatic, and left embittered. … Continue reading “Kipling’s Brutal Epitaph”