by Patrick J. Buchanan

What was anticipated in September, the retreat of the old bulls of the Republican Party from the Bush war policy, happened in June. The beginning of the end of U.S. involvement in the Iraq war is at hand.

“I rise today,” said Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana on Monday, “to offer observations on the continuing involvement of the United States in Iraq. … [O]ur course in Iraq has lost contact with our vital interests in the Middle East and beyond.”

by Patrick J. Buchanan

The presidential candidacy of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is already a smashing success.

A mere change of registration from Republican to independent has garnered him a cornucopia of free and favorable publicity some candidates do not receive in a year of campaigning.

The mayor has replaced Fred Thompson as the most talked-about non-candidate since Mario Cuomo in 1992 and Colin Powell in 1996. Gov. Cuomo and Gen. Powell, after scouting the terrain, declined to engage. That may be good advice for the mayor. Enjoy and exploit the media frenzy you will create between now and decision day, but think long and hard before plunging in. For, after that, the fun stops, the risks of national humiliation rise, and you are fair game for hostile media and the opposition researchers.

by Patrick J. Buchanan

On April 1 – Palm Sunday – after bullets were fired into the Church of the Holy Spirit in Mosul, Iraq, during mass, the pastor, Father Ragheed Ganni, a Chaldean Catholic, e-mailed friends at the Asia Times:

“We empathize with Christ, who entered Jerusalem in full knowledge that the consequence of His love for mankind was the cross. Thus, while bullets smashed our church windows, we offered our suffering as a sign of love for Christ.”

by Patrick J. Buchanan

Of the Bourbons, restored to the throne after the French Revolution, the guillotining of Louis XVI and the Napoleonic interlude, Talleyrand said, they had “learned nothing and forgotten nothing.”

Unfortunately, so may it be said of our own George II.

Last week, at Czermin Palace in Prague, George Bush delivered his latest epistle on democracy as mankind’s salvation, as though he had learned nothing since ordering the invasion of Iraq – to bring the blessings of democracy to Mesopotamia and the Middle East.

by Patrick J. Buchanan

These are the “birth pangs” of a “new Middle East,” said Condi Rice last summer, as Israel pounded Lebanon. Unfortunately, the new Middle East may make us all pray for the return of the old.

Hamas is today engaged in savage street fighting with Fatah for control of Gaza. If Hamas prevails, it could convert this Palestinian enclave into a terrorist base camp between Israel and Egypt.

In northern Lebanon, Islamic jihadists are battling the army for control of a Palestinian refugee camp. Scores are dead.

by Patrick J. Buchanan

Last week, in one of the great uprisings of modern politics, Middle America rose up and body-slammed the national establishment.

The Bush-Kennedy-McCain amnesty for 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens, and for the businesses that have hired them – a bill backed by La Raza and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post – went down to crushing defeat.

Majority Leader Harry Reid fell 15 votes short (45 to 50) of shutting off debate. Like the rout of the Dubai ports deal, the victory was achieved by a firestorm of public protest, reflected in millions of phone calls and e-mails, and citizens marching to town meetings.

by Patrick J. Buchanan

In July 1861, the Union Army marched out of the capital to meet the Confederates forming up at Manassas. Washingtonians packed picnic lunches and followed to enjoy the rebel rout.

By nightfall, the Union Army was straggling back to the city. Stunned and panicked spectators had already returned to report the defeat of Gen. McDowell’s forces. What the First Battle of Bull Run meant was that the rebels were stronger and tougher than anticipated, and Mr. Lincoln’s war was not going to be easy or short.

by Patrick j. Buchanan

By 1988, Ronald Reagan, who had famously branded the Soviet Union “an evil empire,” was striding through Red Square arm-in-arm with Mikhail Gorbachev. Russians were pounding both men on the back.

They had just signed the greatest arms reduction agreement in history – eliminating all Soviet SS-20s targeted on Europe, in return for removal of the Pershing and cruise missiles Reagan had deployed in Europe.

“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!” wrote Wordsworth about his first hearing the news of the fall of the Bastille.

by Patrick J. Buchanan

“I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”

So said Jefferson. It would appear to be time again for a little rebellion in the Grand Old Party – this time against George II.

For President Bush has attacked his own loyalists for a lack of patriotism. “If you don’t want to do what’s right for America,” he said of opponents of the Bush-Kennedy immigration bill, “if you want to scare the American people, what you say is the bill’s an amnesty bill. That’s empty political rhetoric, trying to frighten our citizens.”