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Buchanan
criticized American ignorance and unilateralism |
By
Steve Smith, IOL Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON,
March 20 (IslamOnline) - The United States should mind its own
business and stop acting like the world's God-sent empire, says
leading U.S. political pundit and former presidential candidate Pat
Buchanan.
Buchanan's
daring argument came in a new introduction to his celebrated book A
Republic, Not an Empire - Reclaiming America's Destiny, but has not
received much attention in the country's political and intellectual
circles at a time when the U.S. right wing is winning ground over
the "war on terrorism".
Buchanan's
introduction to the book is entitled "To Hell with Empire"
and argues for a restrained U.S. foreign policy and military
activities.
Buchanan,
who acted as the advisor for three former U.S. presidents, had
called for the restoration of the political, military, and economic
independence that largely drove U.S. foreign policy in the 19th
century.
"If
this Prodigal Nation does not cease its mindless interventions in
quarrels and wars that are not America's concern, our lot will be
endless acts of terror until, one day, a weapon of mass destruction
is detonated on American soil," writes Buchanan in the first
page of his book. "What is it about global empire that is worth
taking this risk?"
Buchanan
join forces with a feeble trend in the U.S. against the expansion of
war against terror that has appealed for the abandonment of
unilateralism, "arrogance, and parochialism" in the
post-September 11th world.
According
to Amazon's book review Buchanan "embraces George Washington's
advice to avoid foreign entanglements" and argues that American
foreign policy has become desperately over-extended.
No
empire in history has survived anything similar to the current
administration's ambitious commitments; indeed, no empire has ever
undertaken such responsibilities, he says.
Consequently,
Buchanan advocates reining in U.S. definition of national interests
and undertaking a foreign policy much more independent of states and
organizations outside U.S. borders "We Americans have been
behaving like the Roman Empire," wrote Buchanan in his new
introduction.
"Between
1989 and 1999, we invaded Panama, smashed Iraq, intervened in
Somalia, invaded Haiti, launched air strikes on Bosnia, fired
missiles at Baghdad, Sudan, and Afghanistan, and destroyed Serbia.
We imposed embargos and blockades on Libya, Iran, Iraq and dozens of
other states."
According
to Buchanan, the blow back came from the Arab-Islamic world.
"Why
did Osama bin Laden target America? Not because we are a democracy,
but, by his own testimony, because he wanted the American infidels
off the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia that is home to Islam's holiest
shrines," he wrote.
"The
terrorists were over here because we are over there."
Buchanan
said that U.S. forces in the Middle East are there for two reasons:
oil and Israel.
"In
fact, at the heart of the Middle East conflict is the Israeli
occupation and creeping annexation of Arab land in Gaza, in East
Jerusalem, and on the West Bank," wrote Buchanan.
"And
though it has received 100 billion dollars in U.S. arms and aid over
the past thirty years, Israel has contemptuously dismissed U.S.
demands to stop building settlements on Arab land."
The
former U.S. presidential candidate drove a message that the U.S.
pro-Israel lobby has been trying to hide or distort in many ways;
that "Israel looks out for Israel first, and Americans
must start looking out for America first."
Some
of the outspoken views in Buchanan's new introduction to his book,
are never heard anywhere in the U.S. corporate media. Buchanan
accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of trying to drag the
U.S. into a war of civilization with the Arab and the Islamic world.
"We
can no longer give preemptive absolution to an Israeli regime that
could drag America into a war of civilizations with the Arab and
Islamic world - and there is reason to believe this is exactly what
Ariel Sharon has in mind."
Buchanan,
who was the Reform Party's presidential candidate in 2000, blamed
certain officials in the U.S. administration for Washington's empire
ambitions. Buchanan notes that Paul Wolfowitz, authored the
"Wolfowitz Memorandum" of 1992, a scheme for American
empire by which the U.S. would use force to block the rise of all
regional powers and go to war with Russia, if necessary.
"Wolfowitz's
memorandum drips with the arrogance of power and hubris that took
hold of our foreign policy elites," wrote Buchanan. Wolfowitz
is now the deputy secretary of defense and is considered the main
force behind the invasion of Iraq.
