Buchanan Reflects on the Follies of War

SEE HERE It is always easier to operate with 20:20 hindsight and Patrick Buchanan makes full use of that advantage in his reflection on the folly of a decade of war that has accomplished so little. Bush the younger takes the hit, but it is always easier in hindsight. It is a deep failure to make war without clear objectives and it seems clear enough that we did not have and still do not have clear objectives for the conflicts that have now endured for so long that they have become among the longest conflicts in American history. Those who have likened this conflict to the quagmire of Vietnam are looking more correct all the time. This conflict, like that conflict, was plagued by a lack of unity and a failure to clearly define objectives and to appreciate the character of war. Frankly it is time to put our own house in order. The out of control growth in the Federal government is part of the problem. We have mired the nation in a morass of regulations and trendy goals that only sap the energy and steal from the people the liberty so many have died to preserve. It is time to reassess ourselves. We are not the saviors of the world, but we ought to be a model of liberty that others can aspire to, instead we are sinking rapidly to the same socialistic stasis that entraps so many nations and while leads nowhere but downward. We are better than that and it is time we start showing it again.