By Uri Brito
Pat Buchanan’s often brilliant insights is something to consider on Monday night’s debate on foreign policy. Lost in Biden’s interruptions and unnecessary laughter were his powerfully non-bellicose observations:
“The last thing we need now is another war.”
“Are you (Ryan) … going to go to war?”
“We will not let them (the Iranians) acquire a nuclear weapon, period, unless he’s (Ryan) talking about going to war.”
“War should always be the absolute last resort.”
“He (Ryan) voted to put two wars on a credit card.”
“We’ve been in this war (Afghanistan) for over a decade. … We are leaving in 2014, period.”
Buchanan argues that usually the peace-party wins. And this is what Obama ought to do with Romney on Monday. The well-known author and opponent of America’s wars in the last two decades, Buchanan argues that the president needs to pose specific questions to Romney. The following are examples of such questions:
“Governor, President Obama has said Iran will not be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. You have said Iran will not be allowed to have a ‘nuclear weapons capability.’ What is the difference? Doesn’t Iran already have the capability to produce a nuclear weapon? What will you do about it?”
“Governor, Paul Ryan said in his debate Iran ‘is racing toward a nuclear weapon.” But 16 U.S. intelligence agencies said in 2007 and reaffirmed in 2011 that Iran has no nuclear weapons program. What is your evidence that Iran is ‘racing toward a nuclear weapon?'”
“Governor, you have said of America and Israel, ‘The world must never see daylight between our two nations.’ Does that mean if Israel attacks Iran, you would take us to war on Israel’s side?”
“Governor, at VMI you said, ‘In Syria, I will work … to identify and organize those members of the opposition who share our values and ensure they obtain the arms they need to defeat Assad’s tanks, helicopters and fighter jets.’ Would you give surface-to-air missiles to the Syrian rebels?”
“Governor, Japan and China are at sword’s point over the Senkaku Islands. If war breaks out, are we obligated by our alliance with Japan to come to her defense?”
Buchanan argues that the American people are “sick over the 6,500 dead and 40,000 wounded, fed up with the $2 trillion in costs, and disillusioned with the results that a decade of sacrifice has produced in Baghdad and Kabul.” If Romney vociferously sides with Neo-Conservatives on Monday he might join John McCain as another victim of the Obama machine.
The reality, of course, as Bob Woodward writes in his book Obama’s War, is that Obama is equally a part of the war-party machine. His counselors would feel equally comfortable in a Romney cabinet. The Nobel Peace Prize winner is just as hawkish as the next Republican. But playing the peace-card can be strategic to Obama. With two weeks to go, somehow I think Obama is going to pull that card out on Monday.
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