|
The Iraq test for World War II
Pat Buchanan is in hot water with the Anti-Defamation League for a
column in which he questioned whether World War II was worth it.
Buchanan reasoned that the purpose of the war had been to save
Czechoslovakia and Poland from tyranny as both nations fell behind
the Iron Curtain after the War, that effort appears to have been
frustrated at best.
 Leading up to the Iraq War,
Bush talked about a lot of reasons for going to war, less we forget
the name of the Iraqi Operation wasn't "Operation Find Weapons of
Mass Destruction" but rather "Operation Iraqi Freedom." In the end,
getting rid of Hussein made a lot of world dictators behave and
realize the US wasn't afraid to depose them. Thus its no coincidence
that Moammar Gadhafi gave up his Weapons of Mass Destruction within
months of the US invasion. Photo credits: JS Online ____________________________
The ADL called foul because Buchanan totally disregarded the carnage
of the Holocaust. Buchanan said if the purpose of the war was "to
liberate Germans, it was not worth it. After all, the Germans voted
Hitler in."
Buchanan's statement like most others that touch on the Jewish people
totally lack sensitivity and understanding to the human toll they
suffered during the Holocaust. However, before the left wags it
finger at Pat Buchanan, they better examine themselves, for on issues
of foreign policy, they're just like Pat.
Like fellow Iraq War opponents, Buchanan has nailed the war down to
one issue and one alone. In Iraq, its Weapons of Mass Destruction, in
World War II, it was the liberation of Poland and Czechoslovakia from
all tyranny. In both cases, he's wrong.
Leading up to the Iraq War, Bush talked about a lot of reasons for
going to war, less we forget the name of the Iraqi Operation
wasn't "Operation Find Weapons of Mass Destruction" but
rather "Operation Iraqi Freedom." In the end, getting rid of Hussein
made a lot of world dictators behave and realize the US wasn't afraid
to depose them. Thus its no coincidence that Moammar Gadhafi gave up
his Weapons of Mass Destruction within months of the US invasion.
The same was true with World War II. The issue was not just the
freedom of Czechoslovakia and Poland. Churchill knew Hitler had a
history of breaking agreements. His word was worth nothing. Buchanan
in his book, "A Republic Not an Empire" pointed to statements in
which the Nazis indicated they sought regional and not world
domination. The simple fact is that the Germans lied so many times,
they simply couldn't be believed. The idea that the West should have
allowed the behemoth of Germany to grow larger, economically and
militarily in the hopes they'd keep their word is the height of
madness.
On the issue of the Holocaust, its true that we didn't' go into World
War II to stop it. Each day in this world: religious, ethnic, and
political groups face genocide and persecution and if we tried to
stop it all, we'd be in a constant state of war. However, the end of
the Holocaust was a powerful benefit of our action in Germany, just
as the liberation of Iraqis from Saddam Hussein's reign of fear and
tyranny that left hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead in what CNN
blithely called, "The News We Kept to Ourselves" was a powerful
benefit of our action in Iraq. If the ADL feel like the suffering of
their people has been discounted by Pat Buchanan this week, they have
a small sample of what Iraqis must feel everyday as they listen to
anti-war people like Michael Moore and of course, Pat Buchanan who
discount their suffering under the hands of a cruel dictator.
Of course, Buchanan's being consistent, the Left has much to answer
for as they hypocritically venerate FDR. The left attacks the
President for the Abu Gharib scandal where some prisoners were
sexually abused by US Soldiers in an event that the President claims
to have had no foreknowledge of and has apologized for. Yet, FDR is
beloved despite the fact that he signed off on Operation Keelhaul
which sent 2 million Russian POWs back to Russia to meet a cruel
death at the hands of Josef Stalin. Apparently, it was alright
because the US didn't put panties on the Russian soldiers' heads
before closing the train door and sending them to their deaths.
The left has little room for outrage with Pat Buchanan's stance on
World War II. After all, all he did was apply their Iraq test to
World War II, and what could be wrong with that?
About the author: Adam Graham was Montana State Coordinator for the
Alan Keyes campaign in 2000, and in 2004 was a candidate for the
Republican nomination for the Idaho State House. He and his wife live
in Garden City, Idaho. Graham writes about U.S. and Idaho politics on
his blog at http://adamsweb.us/blog.
Story CreditsAdam Graham writing
at Renew America
__________________________________________________
Discuss this article
|
