With friends like these ...
Posted: February 24, 2003
Patrick J Buchanan
"'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent
alliances with any portion of the foreign world,"
wrote Washington to his countrymen in his
Farewell Address.
Aware that it was the alliance with France in 1778
that saved our Revolution, Washington did not
oppose all alliances, just permanent ones.
Jefferson, too, warned against "entangling
alliances."
We are today relearning the lessons our Fathers
taught us.
Turkey, a NATO ally of 50 years, whom we bailed
out a dozen times with IMF loans, is holding up
President Bush for $32 billion in cash and loan
guarantees before Ankara will let U.S. troops
transit the country.
Why are the Turks engaged in such naked
extortion?
Cold national interests. Ninety percent of Turks
oppose a U.S. war on Iraq, and the Turks want to
be rewarded for signing on. They also want to be
made whole from the last Gulf War, where they
lost billions in commerce because of our crushing
of Iraq.
Israel, recipient of $100 billion in U.S. aid, is
demanding another $15 billion to hold our coat as
we fight her war against Iraq. Yet Sharon
dismisses Bush's plea to stop expanding the West
Bank settlements that are at the heart of the
Palestinian Intifada that so inflames the Arab
world against us. And by the way, says Sharon,
the United States should disarm Iran, Syria and
Libya, after we finish with Iraq.
Consider the Saudis. In August 1990, President
Bush sent the 82nd Airborne to protect the
kingdom from an Iraqi army that had just invaded
Kuwait. We built permanent U.S. bases there,
costing billions. Now we are told by Crown Prince
Abdullah that the bases cannot be used in a war
with Iraq and that, without U.N. approval, this
will be a "war of aggression."
Germany, whose freedom we defended for half a
century, is now sabotaging the president's effort to
unite the Security Council behind a U.S. resolution
to authorize war to disarm Iraq. To save himself in
last year's election, Chancellor Schroeder
pandered to the anti-Americanism now
widespread in his country.
France was twice liberated by the blood of U.S.
soldiers whose remains lie in French graves. Yet,
President Chirac today threatens to veto any U.N.
resolution that would give Bush authority to send
the grandsons of those U.S. soldiers to liberate the
people of Iraq.
South Korea would not exist today had not tens of
thousands of American soldiers made the supreme
sacrifice in the war of 1950-53. Yet in last year's
campaign, South Korea's new president also
played the anti-American card, pledging to review
the relationship between Seoul and Washington
and the need for U.S. troops to remain on Korean
soil.
When the crisis over North Korea's nuclear
weapons erupted, he helpfully offered to
"mediate" between his defender, the United States,
and his enemy, North Korea, which has
thousands of artillery pieces on his northern
border aimed at his capital city.
"We shall astonish the world with our
ingratitude," said the Italian statesman Cavour.
"The state is a cold monster," echoed DeGaulle,
who ordered NATO out of Paris in 1966.
But to Americans enraged at this seeming
ingratitude, consider our own record before we
became a world power. Twelve years after the
British defeated our enemies in the French and
Indian War, American patriots were shooting
down British soldiers on the Concord Road.
Washington wept with joy at the alliance with
France in 1778, but one year after Yorktown,
American diplomats were back-channeling the
British to conclude a separate peace at the expense
of France.
"Let us be grateful to the French for what they
have done for us," said John Jay to Ben Franklin,
"but let us think for ourselves. And, if need be, let
us act for ourselves."
In 1812, we declared war on our Mother Country
when she was in a death struggle with Napoleon.
Young America was beholden to no one.
This is the world as it is, not as we sentimental
Americans would wish it to be. When South
Korea and Europe needed us, our troops were
welcome, and they remain welcome as long as we
wish to defend them, but please do not ask them
to sacrifice their selfish interests in some higher
American cause. Or be prepared to bribe them.
Can it still be unclear to President Bush that not
only does the world not share his fear of Iraq, tens
of millions of Europeans and Arabs fear and detest
us even more? And if Uncle Sam wants their help
in ousting Saddam, they will charge him an arm
and a leg for it.
Come home, Sam, the war's over. Let our
ungrateful dependents fend for themselves.
They're not worth it, old man.
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