Patrick Buchanan’s preface to A Republic, Not an Empire is filled with prophetic utterances. Buchanan writes that John Quincy Adams’s Independence Day Speech of 1821 declared that it was neither America’s duty nor its destiny to “go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” Further, Buchanan writes that a non-interventionist foreign policy should ultimately be accepted for a fundamental reason:
“Present U.S. foreign policy, which commits America to go to war for scores of nations in regions where we have never fought before is, unsustainable. As we pile commitment upon commitment in Easter Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf, American power continues to contract–a sure formula for a foreign policy disaster (xiii).”
Almost 15 years later, the military industrial complex continues–at the counsel of hungry neo-conservatives–to strategize and pursue taking over various, if not identical regions to those in the 90’s with the Middle East taking a center stage in this modern warfare age. Buchanan’s prophetic words need to be heeded more than ever.<>
