Buchanan Against the Conservatives

LewRockwell.com It’s not just the liberals who are against Pat Buchanan. When it comes to the issue of foreign policy, the conservatives are against him as well. Most all of them. With the exception of Ron Paul, the current and former Republican presidential candidates are against him – Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, and Herman Cain. And so are previous candidates like John McCain and Sarah Palin Conservative magazines are against him. Publications like National Review and the Weekly Standard. Conservative think tanks are against him. Organizations like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. Conservative talk show hosts are against him. Levin, Hannity, O’Reilly, Limbaugh – take your pick. Republicans in the House are against him, including the leaders: John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Kevin McCarthy. Republicans in the Senate are against him, including the leaders: Mitch McConnell and John Kyl. Other members of Congress are against him – like interventionist, warmonger, and imperial vulture Lindsey Graham. Conservatives in general are against him. At the recent CPAC presidential straw poll, Ron Paul received only 12 percent of the vote. It is Congressman Paul’s views on foreign policy – which are very similar to Buchanan’s – that are unconscionable to most of the conservatives in attendance. Republican primary voters in general are against him. Most of them are picking warmonger A, imperialist B, or militarist C instead of noninterventionist Ron Paul. Pat Buchanan has been a conservative fixture in politics and the media for decades. His new book, Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?, has much in it that conservatives will agree with. However, it also has some gems in it that are anathema to most conservatives and music to the ears of libertarians. True, the book has some things in it that libertarians will question, but back in 1991, when George H. W. Bush invaded Iraq the first time, Buchanan was a sane and consistent voice for nonintervention while some libertarians were defending Bush’s foray into the Middle East. In the last two chapters of Suicide of a Superpower, Buchanan is at his best. The first cause of America’s recent decline is the “wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have cost us 6,000 dead, 40,000 wounded, and over $1 trillion.” These wars “destroyed our post 9/11 national unity, alienated the Islamic world, and enlarged the pool in which al-Qaeda fishes.” These wars “have bled us for a decade and done less to make us safe than to inflame the Islamic world against us.” Buchanan understands exactly why the United States is hated by many in the Muslim world:

We came to Afghanistan as liberators, but are seen now as occupiers, imposing our ideas, values, and satraps. After eight years of war in Iraq and ten in Afghanistan, we are coming home with Iraq going its own way and Afghanistan tipping toward the Taliban. . . . We failed to understand what motivated our attackers. They did not come to kill us because they abhor our Constitution, or wish to impose Sharia on Oklahoma. They were over here because we are over there. They came to kill us in our country because we will not get out of their countries…