by Patrick J Buchanan – March 31, 2004

Both the ferocity of the White House attacks and his lionization by the liberal press testify: Richard Clarke has drawn blood.

The former counter-terrorism chief seeks to dynamite the central pillar of the Bush presidency: that the president has bravely and brilliantly led us in the War on Terror and that the war on Iraq made us more secure.

According to Clarke, the White House, especially Condi Rice, was diffident if not indolent in coping with the threat of al-Qaida prior to 9-11. And the obsession with Iraq blinded the White House to the real threat.

by Patrick J Buchanan – March 29, 2004

“Israel has a right to defend itself,” said President Bush. And against whom was Israel defending itself at dawn on Monday?

A half-blind and deaf paraplegic being wheeled out of a mosque after prayers, Sheik Ahmed Yassin was struck by missiles that blew him to pieces. In carrying out the assassination of the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, Ariel Sharon used a U.S. Apache helicopter gunship. Thus, in Islamic eyes, we are passive accomplices in the killing.

by Patrick J Buchanan – March 24, 2004

In 1960, when JFK defeated Nixon, America was a nation of 160 million, 90 percent white and 10 percent black, with a few million Hispanics and Asians sprinkled among us.

We were one nation, one people. We worshipped the same God, spoke the same English language, studied American history and English literature, honored the same heroes, read the same books, watched the same TV shows, went to the same movies, and saw ourselves as defenders of Western Civilization against the godless communism of the Soviet Empire.

by Patrick J Buchanan – March 22, 2004

A year has elapsed since President Bush ordered U.S. forces to invade Iraq. Since that March day, 2003, it has become clear as crystal: Operation Iraqi Freedom was an unnecessary war.

Saddam had had no role in 9-11 or the anthrax attack, no plans to attack us or to invade his neighbors. He was contained by U.S. power and his own weakness. American planes had flown 40,000 sorties in 10 years over Iraq without losing a single aircraft to hostile fire. And Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction.

by Patrick J Buchanan – March 17, 2004

Between 1971 and 1973, he was commander of the Derry Brigade of the Provisional IRA, which fought gun battles with British soldiers in a war that would cost 320 lives.

Arrested in Donegal near a car loaded with 5,000 rounds of ammunition and 250 pounds of explosives, he was sentenced to six months by a court whose jurisdiction he denied, “I am a member of the Derry Brigade of the [IRA] and am very, very proud of it.”

by Patrick J Buchanan – March 15, 2004

Will George W. Bush share the fate of his father and be turned out of office 18 months after having won a military triumph that vaulted him to 90 percent approval? So it seemed during the primaries, as almost a dozen Democratic candidates pummeled Bush daily for having misled the nation on Iraq and presided over the greatest job loss since Hoover.

by Patrick J Buchanan – March 10, 2004

President Bush and his advisers are puzzled and worried.

Economic liftoff took place right on schedule in July when the tax cuts took effect. In the last six months of 2003, the economy blazed along on a growth path of 6 percent. But where are the jobs?

Last week’s jobs report, with hundreds of thousands giving up the search for work, and manufacturing jobs disappearing for the 43rd straight month, jolted the White House. What is going on?

by Patrick J Buchanan – March 8, 2004

“It became an emblematic moment. Patrick Buchanan standing before the Republican National Convention in August 1992, bluntly declaring that there was a ‘religious war’ and a ‘cultural war’ under way for the soul of the country. And that ‘Clinton and Clinton are on the other side’ with an agenda of ‘radical feminism,’ ‘abortion on demand’ and ‘homosexual rights.’”

So wrote Robin Toner in the lead of her Sunday New York Times article titled, “To the Barricades: The Culture Wars, Part II.”

by atrick J Buchanan – March 3, 2004

On coming away from a first, full viewing of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” among the questions that came to mind was: What in heaven’s name was all the howling about?

For the all-powerful impression this emotionally draining film leaves one with is that this is what the Son of God went through for our sins and our salvation. Those who called “The Passion” anti-Semitic without seeing it, who tried to censor it and keep it out of theaters, and who trashed it as pornographic as soon as it appeared on Ash Wednesday have made perfect fools of themselves.

by Patrick J Buchanan – March 1, 2004

The job of the chairman of the Fed, it used to be said, was to take away the punch bowl just as the party got going good.

Last week, Alan Greenspan did his duty. He told Congress Social Security benefits must be cut for the baby boomers, to avoid taxes having to be raised on the Gen-Xers. Like Thelma and Louise, Social Security and Medicare are headed for the cliff.

For decades, our leaders, terrified of touching the “third rail” of American politics, have put off addressing the long-term crisis. Now, the monster has come into view.