Sunday - July 23, 2006

Sunday Editorial

Pat Buchanan’s Senility
by Steve Darnell

At one time I was a big fan of conservative columnist and former presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan.  His deep-rooted conservative values inspired me to start writing political columns of my own, echoing his conservative philosophy.

However, things change over time and now the real Patrick Buchanan seems to be making an appearance.  To be frank:  I think Pat has sunk into the bowels of anti-Semitic senility.

Buchanan’s senility started when he left the Republican Party after being handily defeated in the 2000 presidential primaries by George W. Bush.  Instead of bowing out of the presidential race gracefully and backing Bush, he chose to run as a third-party candidate for the Reform Party in the 2000 presidential election.

His apparent goal was to ruin the Bush campaign and hand the election to Al Gore; why else would a conservative Republican suddenly turn his back on fellow conservatives and excommunicate himself from a party he loved?  He knew that he did not have a realistic chance to win the election. Many claim it was out of sheer hatred for the Bush family.  I tend to think that Buchanan is just a big fan of Benedict Arnold.

And as with Benedict Arnold, Buchanan’s traitorous plan backfired.  Bush still won the election, and Buchanan’s brash political play resulted only in ruining the Reform Party.

Buchanan’s columns have reflected his hatred for and apparent vendetta against the Bush family in the years since the election.  His anti-Semitism shows itself in his columns, where he continually bashes Israel and champions the Arab cause in the Middle East. 

In his last opinion column, “No, This Is Not Our War,” Buchanan chastises “neoconservatives” and “hairy-chested warriors” at the Weekly Standard for supporting the Israeli offensive against Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon. Some questions are best left unasked, but what the heck, I will ask it anyway:  When did Buchanan see Bill Kristol’s chest? 

In his column Buchanan attempts to convince readers, in his veiled anti-Semitic writing style, that Israel is the bully of the Middle East and is throwing around its military might with the backing of the United States.  Israel is showing its military might.  Not as a bully but as a nation protecting itself from terrorist aggression.  As for the United States backing Israel:  I guess the word “ally” is not in Buchanan’s vocabulary, unless of course the ally is an Arab country.

Buchanan ponders why Israel is attacking Hezbollah “with the blessing [of] and without a peep of protest from President Bush.” But he fails to ask why President Bush should bother protesting in the first place.  President Bush is simply allowing the “Bush Doctrine” to be carried out by Israel.  Pat must have forgotten that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, not a Catholic youth organization.  Hezbollah must be removed from Lebanon.

Buchanan’s latest column also conveniently fails to mention the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers and the indiscriminate firing of Katyusha rockets into major Israeli cities by his heroes serving Hezbollah.

Pat has morphed into a kinder, gentler person since the 2000 elections.  He sticks up for the downtrodden Lebanese civilians who have had all power cut off by Israeli airstrikes and calls the action “an outlawed form of collective punishment, that has left them with no sanitation, rotting food, impure water and days without light or electricity in the horrible heat of July.”

I think Pat confuses the term “collective punishment” with warfare.  Israel is at war with terrorists who are using Lebanese civilians as human shields.  Even with the most modern surgical strike by Israeli jets there is still the possibility of civilian casualties.  So if anyone is to blame for civilian casualties, it is Hezbollah, not the Israeli military.

He continues describing the despair in Lebanon:  “When summer power outages occur in America, it means a rising rate of death among our sick and elderly, and
women and infants. One can only imagine what a hell it must be today in Gaza City and Beirut.”

Sure, there is suffering.  There is suffering in all wars.  What Buchanan fails to mention is the suffering of the Israelis huddled in bomb shelters and those killed and wounded by Hezbollah rockets.  But why should he be concerned with their suffering.  They are not Christians or Muslims; they are only Jews.

I remember when Patrick Buchanan was at the height of his career, before his traitorous move from the Republican Party.  Liberals despised Pat, accusing him of being a racist and anti-Semitic.  I would stick up for him in political debates against the left in those days.  He was, after all, my hero in the conservative movement.

Now it is hard to believe that Patrick J. Buchanan is taking the side of liberal appeasers and terrorist thugs by protesting Israel’s right to self-protection.

But the worst thing is that for once in my life I must agree with liberals:  I think Patrick J. Buchanan is anti-Semitic.

And that is what really hurts.

http://www.stevedarnell.com
COPYRIGHT © STEVE DARNELL 2006

Posted by Ronald Reagan's Ghost     on 07/23/2006 at 10:00 AM   
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