Phase III of Bush’s War
by Patrick J. Buchanan
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Those who hoped that—with the victory of the antiwar party in 2006, the departure of Rumsfeld and the neocons from the Pentagon, the rise of Condi and the eclipse of Cheney—America was headed out of Iraq got a rude awakening. They are about to get another.
Today, the United States has 30,000 more troops in Iraq than on the day America repudiated the Bush war policy and voted the GOP out of power. And President Bush, self-confidence surging, is now employing against Iran a bellicosity redolent of the days just prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom.
What gives Bush his new cockiness? The total collapse of the antiwar coalition on Capitol Hill and the breaking of the Congress.
Last spring, Bush vetoed the congressional deadlines for troop withdrawals, then rubbed Congress’ nose in its defeat by demanding and getting $100 billion to support the surge and continue the war.
Before the August recess, Democrats broke again and voted to give Bush the warrantless wiretap authority many among them had said was an unconstitutional and impeachable usurpation of power. They are a broken and frightened lot.
Comes now evidence congressional Democrats have not only lost the pro-victory vote, but forfeited the peace vote, as well.
According to a Zogby poll the last week in August, just two weeks before Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker report, Americans, by 45 percent to 20 percent, give this Democratic Congress lower grades on handling the war than the Republican Congress it replaced.
Fifty-four percent of the nation believes, contra Harry Reid, the war is not lost. That is twice the support that Bush enjoys for his war leadership, a paltry 27 percent. But, by nine to one, Bush’s leadership on the war is preferred to that of the Congress of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.
Incredibly, only 3 percent of the nation gives Congress a positive rating on its handling of the war. Congress has lost the hawks, and the owls, and the doves. No one trusts its leadership on the war.
And George W. smells it. He no longer fears the power of Congress, and his rhetoric suggests he is contemptuous of it. He is brimming with self-assurance that he can break any Democratic attempt to impose deadlines for troop withdrawal and force Congress to cough up all the funds he demands.
Confident of victory this fall on the Hill, Bush is now moving into Phase III in his War on Terror: First, Afghanistan, then Iraq, then Iran.
Do not take this writer’s word for it. Hearken to the astonishing rhetoric Bush used at the American Legion Convention in Las Vegas against Tehran:
“Iran … is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. … Iran funds terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which murder the innocent and target Israel. … Iran is sending arms to the Taliban. … Iran has arrested visiting American scholars who have committed no crimes. … Iran’s active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.
“Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere. … We will confront this danger before it is too late.”
Bush has repeatedly warned Iran to cease supplying Iraqi insurgents with arms and enhanced IEDs for attacks on our troops in Iraq.
How has Tehran responded to Bush’s virtual ultimatums?
“The attacks on our bases and our troops by Iranian-supplied munitions have increased in the last few months—despite pledges by Iran to help stabilize the security situation in Iraq. …
“Iran’s leaders cannot escape responsibility for aiding attacks against coalition forces and the murder of innocent Iraqis.”
This is a case for war. Indeed, it’s an assertion by President Bush that Iran is colluding in acts of war against the soldiers and Marines and allies of the United States. What does he intend to do?
“I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran’s murderous activities. … We’ve conducted operations against Iranian agents supplying lethal munitions to extremist groups.”
This suggests that U.S. forces may already be engaged in combat operations against Iranians.
Who or what can stop this drive to war?
Last spring, Nancy Pelosi herself, after a call from the Israeli lobby, pulled an amendment that would have forced Bush to come to Congress for specific authorization before attacking Iran. Before the August recess, the Senate voted 97 to zero for a resolution sponsored by Joe Lieberman to censure Iran for complicity in the killing of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
The resolution explicitly rejected authorization for immediate military action, but the gist of it declared that Iran is participating in acts of war against the United States, laying the foundation for a confrontation.
What is to prevent Bush from attacking Iran and widening the war, at a time and place of his choosing, and sooner than we think?
Nothing and no one.
COPYRIGHT 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
[Subscribe online to Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. Click here for details].
1 Comment by danielj on 3 September 2007:
What the jews want, the jews get…
2 Comment by Bill Gardner on 3 September 2007:
“Last spring, Nancy Pelosi herself, after a call from the Israeli lobby, pulled an amendment that would have forced Bush to come to Congress for specific authorization before attacking Iran.” -PB
I wonder what they have on her? I wonder what they had on Bush the First to coerce him into the initial Gulf War, to start this whole mess in behalf of Israel. Can you imagine if French or Italian or German or Irish (whomever) Americans lobbied against American interests, the way American Jews lobby in behalf of Israel. This facet of our stupidity will never end until the Lobby is dismantled and they are all registered as foreign agents. … People believe the Lobby follows the Establishment. That was once the case. Then they became joined at the hip. And now since Bush’s father the Establishment follows the Lobby; unless now it has gone farther and the Establishment is the Lobby. So now you know you’re/we’re ruled from Jerusalem. In terms of Jerusalem v. Athens it is a complete Jerusalem victory and route presently. Happy Hanukka! That’s what Hanukka celebrates (do they even let you know that), when during the war in Israel of Hellenized Jews backed by the Hellenized King Antiochus of Syria, they were opposed and attacked in 167 B.C. by the ruthless Maccabees allegedly representing the real or Judaisized Jews and yet another war raged there. Until in 164 B.C. the Maccabees prevailed and there were 8 days subsequently of celebration by the prevailing forces in the Jewish Temple = Hanukka. Later of course normal Jews regretted that the Jewish Maccabee clan had defeated the Hellenized Jews and the Hellenized King Antiochus, as the Maccabees proved more brutal and oppressive in their rulership by far than had been the case previously. Today the Hellenized West with its overly Liberalized values is still being surreptitiously hammered with its own values ironically by the wolves within sheep’s clothing or – trojan horses within Her walls. They know that. But their value scheme is still ONLY about conquest (that’s their brainwashing from a child onward), and it is not tempered in the least by the culture in the West led by the prince of peace, Christ who is in fact held by them to be the remaining enemy. Thus to further mislead the sheep led by “peace”, of course lip service or the cover story always must be used at the conceptual level. We human beings are conceptual creatures, and so it is always For peace we have perpetual war. And it is always in behalf of some other humanitarian cover story that our own subversion and conquest continues at home. When will it end? In double speak your-our country (this land is your land this land is my land…) is not only being given away, you must actually finance it too, and so it is called ‘Homeland Security.’ Happy Hanukka!
So much for the anti-war effort and the ‘fabled’ leadership of Pelosi. Even Hillary Clinton admitted on the David Letterman show, ‘well we don’t yet know how a girl will do as President…’ Well, we do know how a girl has done as speaker… but it’s much the same apparently with all her male colleagues, six of one, half-dozen of another. Funny universe. Ha-ha!
3 Comment by Brian Wheeler on 3 September 2007:
Tactical nukes will be used. After that all bets are off. This will very likely freak the North Koreans. The Gates of Hell have been opened. Hey, go to all ball game. Enjoy yourself.
4 Comment by Jimmy on 3 September 2007:
It’s disturbing this warmongering. Thank God for men like Pat Buchanan. I wish we had guys like him in Europe. Clear and honest guys.
It seems like American neoconservatives, and liberals too, have the same attitude towards democracy as European nationalists in the early 1900s had towards abstract nationalism. What Martin Van Creveld and William Lind call the ‘State as an ideal’. Now they celebrate democracy as an ideal, and as an ideal it will fail too.
No nationalism, but democratism
The PNAC will turn out to be a fraud.
PS
Stop blaming the jews, start blaming your politicians. Most US jews are against foreign wars anyway. Yeah, they support Israel, but what’s wrong with that? Israel is the only succesful state in the whole damn Middle East.
5 Comment by Simon Newman on 3 September 2007:
“Today, the United States has 30,000 more troops in Iraq than on the day America repudiated the Bush war policy and voted the GOP out of power”
The Democrats have been truely pathetic, snivelling cowards. If the American people had known what to expect most of them would never have been voted into office. There are a few exceptions – Jim Webb seems pretty darn consistent – but Hillary has been absolutely wretched. “It’s time to think about starting to begin to withdraw some of the troops towards the ultimate goal of beginning to end this war!” *blech*
6 Comment by Simon Newman on 3 September 2007:
I agree with Jimmy’s points above. Blaming all Jews is like me, an Ulsterman, blaming all Irish-Americans for the IRA.
“Confident of victory this fall on the Hill, Bush is now moving into Phase III in his War on Terror: First, Afghanistan, then Iraq, then Iran.”
I just hope the disaster isn’t too great – a Lebanon rather than a Stalingrad. It’s possible that Iran might do what Serbia did when attacked in the Kosovo war, hunker down and refuse to fight back. I doubt that’s Ahmedinejad’s preference though. If the Iranians want to they can wipe out any carrier groups in the Persian Gulf with anti-ship missiles (we saw a demo in Lebanon last year, when Hezbollah destroyed an Israeli warship) and torpedoes and cut US supply lines into Iraq from Kuwait, potentially suffocating the entire US army there. I don’t think most of the Iranian leadership would be keen on risking this, since the US can respond with any level of destruction it wishes against Iran, but the IRG might believe it was worth a few million dead to humble the Great Satan. Hopefully the rumours that the neocons are actively *seeking* such a debacle, in order to prompt the US to literally destroy Iran, is not true.
7 Comment by danielj on 3 September 2007:
You really think I’m blaming every jew?
I read Chronicles sporadically and am not that stupid.
Thank God for men like Pat Buchanan.
It was revealed by a jew that knew Pat whilst defending him from the charge of anti-semitism, that Pat’s inner circle was about 50% jewish as well.
It is not my fault the dusty pages of scholarship have so clouded some of your eyes you are unable to call a spade a spade.
While I do respect my elders, and all of you certainly are at least twice as old as me, you don’t have to live with the genocidal impact of the jew inspired policies of our sell-out Gentile elite so it becomes easy to tell me to come down.
I don’t have the opportunity to take advantage of the nice cushy jobs you all had post WWII in a booming economy. I am forced everyday to walk streets where my language is spoken secondarily to ebonics and Spanish and where my kids will be beaten mercilessly everyday on their way to schools filled with teachers who are paid to do nothing but instill guilt in them.
You’ve left me a broken world and have no right to tell me what to believe.
8 Comment by danielj on 3 September 2007:
Mmmm… Look at this statement and ‘deconstruct’ it with me:
I agree with Jimmy’s points above. Blaming all Jews is like me, an Ulsterman, blaming all Irish-Americans for the IRA.
Try this on for size:
I agree with Jimmy’s points as well. Blaming all jews is like me, a jew, blaming all Palestinians for the suicide bombings of the P.L.O.
9 Comment by Bill Gardner on 3 September 2007:
danielj ditto. no one’s ‘blaming’ “all” jews. jews are as stupid on average as the rest of us. the average i.q. if the I.Q. test measures actual well-rounded intelligence in Tel Aviv is a whopping 99 for jews not including arabs. go to the http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com site and read the Atzmon’s artilces of August 7 & 15 … two brilliant israelis jews no doubt with astronomical i.q.’s and they BLAME jews where jews are to blame and deconstruct their own belief systems to point out first and foremost to themselves and then to other jews who might be interested where the thought processes go ‘wrong’ or inappropriately off track… just as I attempt to do, and explain why it’s that way, perhaps, as best as I can in my above post. EVER see anything like that in the mainstream media? Of course not. What does that tell you? It’s manipulated it’s censored with the public’s interests NOT at heart. You don’t have to be an Einstein to figure that one out, do you? good posts danielj … i bet you’re more intelligent than i… ? good insights.
10 Comment by alejo on 3 September 2007:
Iran will turn out to be a much tougher nut to crack than Iraq. The new world order may crack on the soil of Persia. They have a much bigger population, a larger and more modern army and a real air force. In addition they will have the support of both Russia and China. Our Europeon allies will hold back . They were burned in Iraq and will no longer follow Bush. What will happen when heavy US casualties in Iran lead to a call for a reinstatement of the draft? What will happen to the price of oil when Iran mines the straights of Hormuz? Who will make up the slack, Venezuela? Bush will be cursed by future generations
11 Comment by Simon Newman on 4 September 2007:
alejo:
“They have a much bigger population, a larger and more modern army and a real air force”
Iranian conventional forces – old war planes, old tanks – aren’t much of a threat to the USA, they have less functional gear than eg Syria (google Iranian military strength). But what they do have is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, highly capable light infantry adept at irregular warfare on land and sea. In a 2002 US navy war game, a force of small boats equipped similarly to IRG naval units famously sunk most of a US carrier fleet, and that’s not even counting their land-to-sea missile capability. The 2006 Lebanon war between US and Iranian proxies (Israel, Hezbollah) demonstrated a little of what we could expect, but US forces in Iraq are far more vulnerable than Israeli forces in Israel, being reliant on a supply line that runs through the Gulf-Kuwait-Basra and up to Baghdad. The IRG can easily cut this route, with potentially disastrous consequences. Modern US forces have practically no non-mechanised mobility, US marines, among the best regular forces, have an estimated sustained march rate all of 10 km/day. That won’t get them out of Iraq before they die of thirst (if they’re not overrun first).
12 Comment by Tobias Torgerson on 4 September 2007:
The Maccabees were heroes. That doesn’t mean that modern Zionists are. The Greeks wanted to set up an idol in the Jerusalem Temple. They got what they deserved.
13 Comment by Bill Wilder on 4 September 2007:
Will the Stormfronters please leave so an intelligent conversation can occur? You are not welcome.
The Democrats have again boxed themselves in again (just as they did throughout the 90s with Clinton’s tough talk on Saddam–remember the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act?). They talked tough on Iran all of last year, believing the President was too weak to actually go to war and they could get a free pass on saber-rattling. Now the President is apparently calling their bluff, and it will be ordinary Americans paying out on the bet.
And, for the Stormfronters, US Jews opposed the Iraq War by large margins, while white Protestants supported it by large margins (see this Gallup report http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=26677; Jews currenlty oppose the war by more than 3 to 1 and in 2003 more than 6 in 10 Jews opposed the war, while white Protestants strongly supported it). The ethnicity issue on the war question has become a distant second to the culture of militarism that has seized the US since 1980 (assiduously documented by orthodox Catholic Dr. Andrew Bacevich) and the rise of Christian Zionism among evangelicals. If a war with Iran is to be stopped, liberal/left-wing Jews will be an important part of that coalition.
Listening to the Stormfront morons is a recipe for another war. Just as Lindbergh had to throw the Silver Shirters out of the The AFC, the antiwar Right must ignore the Stormfront goofballs and their internet warriors (fortunately, they’re not actually part of any movement to need to throw them out). Good riddance.
14 Comment by Jerry Cline on 4 September 2007:
Mr. Wilder:
The Gallup report (Feb. 23, 2007) is actually found at this link:
http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=26677&pg=1
The report has some interesting facts. For instance, why aren’t more Catholics like myself against the war in Iraq? The Iraq War doesn’t even come close to satisfying the Just War Doctrine. Why are Mormons so supportive of this War? As for U.S. Jews, a solid majority of non-Democrat Jews are against the War while the majority of white Protestants (and probably a good deal of Southern whites) support the War.
If the Gallup data is incorrect, I would like one of these so-called “Stormfronters” to demonstrate how (and spare us the conspiracy theories etc.).
15 Comment by Bill Gardner on 4 September 2007:
If I’m one of the stormfronters or being considered so, where do I say a majority of jews are in favor of the war in iraq or nuking iran? Even if moronic alleged catholics are? The American Israelis-Jewish Lobby is in favor of it. What are you asleep. You think W. is in Iraq for oil only? Most american jews, either oppose the war or at least indicate that they oppose it, and we’ll take them at their word. As do some israelis jews like the Atzmons. Have you ever been to the http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com website?
As for Tobias believing the Maccabees were ‘heroes’ I guess it depends what you mean by that word? The Maccabees were thugs and criminals who almost forever raided everyone including jews in times of war and peace. Yes the Hellenists including Hellenist Jews wanted (or so the story goes) to put the Greek God Jupiter in the Judaic Temple, or perhaps managed to nudge him in there…golly how awful, instead of my preferred God YAWAH. Put it in context…you’re talking Jews v. Jews as to what “God” should represent, CULTURALLY, Tobias. That’s another discussion.
Back to the ‘merits’ of the Maccabees, they were ‘jews’ (whatever that means) who oppressed jews once they had the reins of power. So much so that rabbis refuse to even mention this episode in jewish history except with a single sentence or two in the Talmud; (although it is one of the real episodes, as opposed to the mythical ones.) It wasn’t just vague oppression by the Maccabee rulership with room for reasonable historians to disagree as to the extent of the repression. If you disagreed in the least with the Maccabees about ANYTHING you were executed. The first thing Maccabee King Alexander Yannai did when said disagreement sought ’safety’ in numbers was to execute 800 of his Pharisee opponents in an open air gathering, a political rally of the people, after first forcing them to witness the murders by sword of their wives and children before their very eyes. The stunned, grateful survivors along with King Yannai and his elite henchmen enjoyed a wild celebration and party afterward. (If you had survived, wouldn’t you participate?) Cheers.
All’s well that ends well? I hope you’re not referring to me as some sort of what was it “stormfronter” … frankly speaking now I have a sense of what it means but didn’t even know prior. Bill, are you really Wilder… or less so?
______________________________________
16 Comment by Bill Wilder on 4 September 2007:
Mr. Cline:
I suspect there are a number of reasons for the disparity, but the predominance of militarism in American popular culture is surely one of them. Both Catholics and Protestants have been “acculturated” to that “We’re no. 1″ mindset. That may explain why blacks and Jews are more opposed to the war. I think, as groups, they tend to be more alienated/suspicious and conscious of separatism (respectively) of that dominant militarist culture and so lest susceptible to it. Of course, that conclusion involves a lot of supposition.
Perhaps the most vivid example of this is among Protestant fundamentalists/primitivists. 60-70 years ago they were alienated and aloof to the culture. They had low levels of military participation and were probably the most hostile/suspicious of such government action of significant groups. Today, jingoism/patriotism/militarism have a choke hold on these groups (I know because I’m a primitivist and “the war question” that was the subject of heated debate for 100 years (from pre-civil war to pre-WWII) has no retreated to a footnote, with churches having numerous military members.
So I think a sea-change in the culture and the relationship of certain religious groups to it is a big reason for that shift. But in any event, what we can know from Gallup is it isn’t black people and Jews who are the problem for the military (mis)adventures of the past 30 years.
17 Comment by danielj on 6 September 2007:
I’m not a ’stormfronter,’ have no intention of becoming one and resent your characterization of my comments as ‘unintelligent.’
Just because some of the commentators at Chronicles don’t have the intestinal fortitude to call a spade a spade doesn’t mean all of us should be forced into silence. I learn much here but it doesn’t mean I have to agree with everyone of your ‘classics informed’ opinions.
I don’t care who supports the war and the fact that plenty of American jews have fallen victim to their own universalism, doesn’t mean that powerful old school jews aren’t hugely responsible for the mess in Iraq.
Jews currenlty oppose the war by more than 3 to 1 and in 2003 more than 6 in 10 Jews opposed the war, while white Protestants strongly supported it).
I’m sure they all sat around their dinner tables airing their views on their superiority over the blood-thirsty goyim.
The numbers are unimportant.
culture of militarism
Is ’social sin’ part of official Catholic church theology? This kind of thinking leads to Morgenthau plans.
That may explain why blacks and Jews are more opposed to the war.
Blacks are opposed to anything that requires sacrifice for the majority populace. (Is it still okay to generalize here?)
18 Comment by danielj on 6 September 2007:
Iran will turn out to be a much tougher nut to crack than Iraq.
Nope.
The ‘tactical use’ of nuclear weapons changes everything.
19 Comment by Bill Wilder on 6 September 2007:
>>I’m sure they all sat around their dinner tables airing their views on their superiority over the blood-thirsty goyim.
Blacks are opposed to anything that requires sacrifice for the majority populace. (Is it still okay to generalize here?)
The ‘tactical use’ of nuclear weapons changes everything.
“resent your characterization of my comments as ‘unintelligent.’”
20 Comment by Bill Wilder on 6 September 2007:
You’ve demonstrated my point amply.
21 Comment by robert akman on 6 September 2007:
Some Jews are decent honest people like Wolf Blitzer or Ted Coppel, but most cannot be trusted with power because they are more susceptible to Satans influence than believers of the mighty Christ!
22 Comment by Brian Wheeler on 6 September 2007:
What is so honest and decent about Ted Koppel? He has made a living as a sychophant for the war criminal Henry Kissinger. His son in law Kevin Pollack was providing the academic cheerleeding for the invasion of Iraq. Pollack is back at it again demonizing Iran.
Koppel is a also a cheerleader for the ongoing Mexican invasion of American.
Koppel is a propagandist for the Republican and Democartic war criminals. He was also a major media cheerleader for the slaughter of the Serbian civilian population by Bill Clinto.
Ted Koppel is a cockroach.
23 Comment by danielj on 6 September 2007:
You’ve demonstrated my point amply.
What?
You don’t generalize about any group of people?
Are you some kind of libertarian or something?
I’m sure they all sat around their dinner tables airing their views on their superiority over the blood-thirsty goyim.
You don’t think they do huh?
I know them, I have jewish friends and have had jewish lovers. I didn’t get my education about them from the internet.
Tell me you don’t think liberal jews sit around criticizing the pro-war goy as silly cattle.
Blacks are opposed to anything that requires sacrifice for the majority populace.
Blacks consistently vote for their interests over ours. They want welfare. Is it an untrue statement? Should I translate it into Latin? Does everything have to be highbrow here?
If that is the case, then what are you people even sticking up for? A majority of our brothers and sisters are just not that intelligent.
24 Comment by John C. on 12 September 2007:
“What the jews want, the jews get…”
I’m so glad you took the time to write that. Because it’s the “jews” fault. While I am a fierce critic of Israeli policy, as well as US policy towards that troublesome state, I am hardly willing to blame “the jews”. It’s comments like that that give legitimacy to anti-semetic accusations. Look, I’m pretty sure I understand what you’re trying say, but next time take an extra five minutes to better articulate, less you come off sounding like a rube.
JC
25 Comment by danielj on 12 September 2007:
I work around 15 hours a day.
I pick my wife up at three in the morning when she gets off.
I don’t have time to sit around waxing poetic about the civil war and medieval Latin.
If you get my point why do you want me to multiply my words?
I’m not “blaming” the jews either. Read it again.
I said: “What the jews want, the jews get.”
26 Comment by RANGANAYI HLOMAYI on 2 October 2007:
can you kindly send me some mail.