The Sluggish Move Left

The article below was written by Pat Buchanan.
"What the hell is something Pat Buchanan wrote doing on this website?" return readers might ask.
Well, it's simple, I think Patrick Buchanan, at the ripe old age of 68, may actually be coming to his senses. Although his website proudly proclaims "Patrick J. Buchanan, right from the beginning," good ol' Patty may be a moving closer to the left the closer he comes to "the end." He's been extremely critical of George Bush and the war in Iraq and now of Israel.
The following article was written in August, but it's relevance hasn't deminished. So read on and surprise yourself with Buchanan's rational thinking and humanity, but before hailing him as the next great liberal convert, remember that he also wrote the following in his newest book "State of Emergency":

With perhaps 4 million illegal aliens having broken in in Bush’s five-and-a-half years in office, and our border states being daily breached by thousands more, can anyone say President Bush has protected the states of this Union against that invasion? In an earlier America, this dereliction of constitutional duty would have called forth articles of impeachment.

After reading that crap, I think we should end on a more positive note by reading some of the author's more enlightened commentary:

August 1, 2006
The Moral Culpability for Qana
by Patrick J. Buchanan
"Everyone in southern Lebanon is a terrorist and is connected to Hezbollah," roared Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon on July 27.

"Every village from which a Katyusha is fired must be destroyed,"bellowed an Israeli general in a quote bannered by the nation's largest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.
The Israeli paper then summarized what the justice minister andgeneral were saying: "In other words, a village from which rocketsare fired at Israel will simply be destroyed by fire." That was Thursday.
Sunday, in Qana, 57 of Haim Ramon's "terrorists," 37 of themchildren, were massacred with precision-guided bombs. Apparently,Katyushas had been fired from Qana, near the destroyed building.
"One who goes to sleep with rockets shouldn't be surprised if he doesn't wake up in the morning," said Israel's ambassador to theUnited Nations, Dan Gillerman.
Today, we hear unctuous statements about how Israel takes pains to avoid civilian casualties, drops leaflets to warn civilians to fleetarget areas, and conforms to all the rules of civilized warfare.
But Israel's words and deeds contradict her propaganda. As the warbegan, Ehud Olmert accused Lebanon, which had condemned Hezbollah for the killing and capture of the Israeli soldiers, of an "act of war."Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz publicly threatened "to turnback the clock in Lebanon by 20 years."
Gillerman, at a pro-Israel rally in New York, thundered, "[T]o those countries who claim that we are using disproportionate force, I haveonly this to say: You're damn right we are."
"His comments drew wild applause," said the Jerusalem Post.
Though Israel is dissembling now, Gillerman spoke the truth then. No sooner had Hezbollah taken the two Israeli soldiers hostage thanIsrael unleashed an air war – on Lebanon. The Beirut airport wasbombed, its fuel storage tanks set ablaze. The coast was blockaded.Power plants, gas stations, lighthouses, bridges, roads, trucks, and buses were all hit with air strikes.
Within 48 hours, it was apparent Israel was exploiting Hezbollah'sattack to execute a preconceived military plan to destroy Lebanon –i.e., the collective punishment of a people and nation for the crimes of a renegade militia they could not control. It was the moralequivalent of a municipal police going berserk, shooting, killing,and ravaging an African-American community, because Black Panthershad ambushed and killed cops.
If Israel is not in violation of the principle of proportionality, bywhich Christians are to judge the conduct of a just war, what canthat term mean? There are 600 civilian dead in Lebanon, 19 in Israel, a ratio of 30-1, though Hezbollah is firing unguided rockets, while Israel is using precision-guided munitions.
Thousands of Lebanese civilians are injured. Perhaps 800,000 are homeless.
Yet, whatever one thinks of the morality of what Israel is doing, the stupidity is paralyzing. Instead of maintaining the moral andpolitical high ground it had – when even Egypt, Saudi Arabia, andJordan were condemning Hezbollah, and privately hoping Israel wouldinflict a humiliating defeat on Nasrallah – Israel launched an air war on an innocent people. Now, 87 percent of Lebanese backHezbollah, and the entire Arab and Islamic world, Shia and Sunnialike, is rallying behind Nasrallah.
And how does one defend the behavior of the United States?
When Gillerman was exulting in the disproportionality of Israel'sattack on Lebanon, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton was smiling smuglybeside him. When the UN Security Council tabled a resolutioncondemning Hezbollah's igniting of the war and Katyusha attacks, but also the excesses of Israel's reprisals, U.S. Ambassador John Boltonvetoed it. When a few congressmen sought to moderate a pro-Israeliresolution by adding words urging "all sides to protect innocent lifeand infrastructure," GOP leader John Boehner ordered the words takendown.
Why? Because, says Zbigniew Brzezinski, AIPAC, the Israeli lobby, hadprepared the resolution and wanted it passed the way they wrote it. Our Knesset complied. It sailed through the House 410-8.
For two weeks, Bush seemed unable to find a word of criticism forwhat our friends in Israel were doing to our friends in Lebanon. Hepublicly sent more bombs to Israel. He and Condi emphasized that America did not want a cease-fire – yet.
And because America provides Israel with the bombs it uses onLebanon, and we refused to restrain the Israelis, and we opposedevery effort for a cease-fire before Sunday, America shares full moral and political responsibility for the massacre at Qana.
Rubbing our noses in our own cravenness, "Bibi" Netanyahu took timeout, a week ago, from his daily appearances on American television,denouncing terrorism, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of theterror attack on the King David Hotel by Menachem Begin's Irgun, anattack that killed 92 people, among them British nurses.
This was not a terrorist act, Bibi explained, because Irgun telephoned a 15-minute warning to the hotel before the bombs wentoff. Right. And those children in that basement in Qana should nothave ignored the Israeli leaflets warning them to clear out ofsouthern Lebanon.
Our Israeli friends appear to be playing us for fools.

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