Who wrote, in a review of the Richard Perle-David Frum book, "An End to Evil," the following:
o In the war we are in, our enemies are weak. That is why they resort to
the weapon of the weak‹terror. And, as in the Cold War, time is on
America1s side. Perseverance and patience are called for, not this
panic.
o The more I saw, the more I thought that this [war] was the product of
the neocons who didn1t understand the region and were going to create
havoc there. These were dilettantes from Washington think tanks who
never had had an idea that worked on the ground .... Somehow, the neocons captured the president. They captured the vice president. [Quote from Gen Anthony Zinni]
o Fear is what Perle and his co-author David Frum are peddling to
stampede America into serial wars. Just such fear-mongering got us into
Iraq, though, we have since discovered, Iraq had no hand in 9/11, no
ties to al-Qaeda, no weapons of mass destruction, no nuclear program,
and no plans to attack us. Iraq was never "the clear and present
danger" the authors insist she was.
o …they declaim:
For us, terrorism remains the great evil of our time, and the war
against this evil, our generation1s great cause….We believe [Americans] are fighting to win‹to end this evil before it kills again and on a genocidal scale. …
But no nation can "end evil." Evil has existed since Cain rose up
against his brother Abel and slew him. A propensity to evil can be
found in every human heart. And if God accepts the existence of evil,
how do Frum and Perle propose to "end it? Nor can any nation "win the
war on terror." Terrorism is simply a term for the murder of
non-combatants for political ends.
o … An End to Evil is a brief in defense of neoconservatives against their impending indictment on charges they lied us into a war that may prove our
greatest disaster since Vietnam. And the charge of deliberate deceit is
not without merit.
o Let it be said: it is vital to victory over al-Qaeda, to the security
of our country, the safety of our people, and our broader interests in
an Arab and Islamic world of 57 nations that stretches from Morocco to
Malaysia that we not let the neocons conflate our war on terror with
their war for hegemony.
Now, for $10 million - just kidding - what dangerous left-winger wrote all of the above?
Patrick Buchanan, in The American Conservative (March 1, 2004).
He summarizes by accusing the neoconservatives of a hidden agenda: "permanent war for their permanent empowerment."
You may want to read the entire article. It’s marred, I think, by Buchanan’s own hidden agenda: anti-Semitism couched as anti-Zionism. But nobody ever accused him of stupidity or poor writing.
Now sit back and consider. How crazy is a world where the fascist wannabe, Patrick Buchanan, attacks the White House from its left? And makes a lot of sense?
Posted by Arthur Alpert at February 23, 2004 09:44 AM