buchanan is funny

[Undercutter]

What do we offer the world?

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"So, how do we advance the cause of female emancipation in the Muslim world?" asks Richard Perle in "An End to Evil." He replies, "We need to remind the women of Islam ceaselessly: Our enemies are the same as theirs; our victory will be theirs as well."

Well, the neoconservative cause "of female emancipation in the Muslim world" was probably set back a bit by the photo shoot of Pfc. Lynndie England and the "Girls Gone Wild" of Abu Ghraib prison.

Indeed, the filmed orgies among U.S. military police outside the cells of Iraqi prisoners, the S&M humiliation of Muslim men, the sexual torment of their women raise a question. Exactly what are the "values" the West has to teach the Islamic world?

"This war ... is about – deeply about – sex," declaims neocon Charles Krauthammer. Militant Islam is "threatened by the West because of our twin doctrines of equality and sexual liberation."

But whose "twin doctrines" is Krauthammer talking about? The sexual liberation he calls our doctrine belongs to a '60s revolution that devout Christians, Jews and Muslims have been resisting for years.

What does Krauthammer mean by sexual liberation? The right of "tweeners" and teenage girls to dress and behave like Britney Spears? Their right to condoms in junior high? Their right to abortion without parental consent?

If conservatives reject the "equality" preached by Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, NARAL and the National Organization for Women, why seek to impose it on the Islamic world? Why not stand beside Islam, and against Hollywood and Hillary?

In June 2002 at West Point, President Bush said, "Moral truth is the same in every culture, in every time and in every place."

But even John Kerry does not agree with George Bush on the morality of homosexual unions and stem-cell research. On such issues, conservative Americans have more in common with devout Muslims than with liberal Democrats.

The president notwithstanding, Americans no longer agree on what is moral truth. For as someone said a few years back, there is a cultural war going on in this country – a religious war. It is about who we are, what we believe and what we stand for as a people.

What some of us view as the moral descent of a great and Godly republic into imperial decadence, neocons see as their big chance to rule the world.

In Georgia, recently, the president declared to great applause: "I can't tell you how proud I am of our commitment to values. ... That commitment to values is going to be an integral part of our foreign policy as we move forward. These aren't American values, these are universal values. Values that speak universal truths."

But what universal values is he talking about? If he intends to impose the values of MTV America on the Muslim world in the name of a "world democratic revolution," he will provoke and incite a war of civilizations America cannot win because Americans do not want to fight it. This may be the neocons' war. It is not our war.

When Bush speaks of freedom as God's gift to humanity, does he mean the First Amendment freedom of Larry Flynt to produce pornography and of Salman Rushdie to publish "The Satanic Verses" – a book considered blasphemous to the Islamic faith? If the Islamic world rejects this notion of freedom, why is it our duty to change their thinking? Why are they wrong?

When the president speaks of freedom, does he mean the First Amendment prohibition against our children reading the Bible and being taught the Ten Commandments in school?

If the president wishes to fight a moral crusade, he should know the enemy is inside the gates. The great moral and cultural threats to our civilization come not from outside America, but from within. We have met the enemy, and he is us. The war for the soul of America is not going to be lost or won in Fallujah.

Unfortunately, Pagan America of 2004 has far less to offer the world in cultural fare than did Christian America of 1954. Many of the movies, books, magazines, TV shows, videos and much of the music we export to the world are as poisonous as the narcotics the Royal Navy forced on the Chinese people in the Opium Wars.

A society that accepts the killing of a third of its babies as women's "emancipation," that considers homosexual marriage to be social progress, that hands out contraceptives to 13-year-old girls at junior high ought to be seeking out a confessional – better yet, an exorcist – rather than striding into a pulpit like Elmer Gantry to lecture mankind on the superiority of "American values."

[Undercutter]

1. he is a conservative lunatic

but at least he consfuses the hell out of republicans as well, so it can't be a bad thing...

[hedda_foil]

2. Link?

Please.

[Undercutter]

4. here

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38560

buchanan is great when he gets worked up and start talking against invasion of iraq and against free trade, because, as i said before, it confuses the hell out of bush supporting republicans

[Charlie Brown]

3. Remember when

He was a favorite for the Repub nomination in '96? Didn't he coin the "culture war" rhetoric. Ah, we've come so far.

[IrishBloodEngHeart]

5. He's right

Religous fundamentalist have more in common with each other than they do with secular progressives. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are very much in agreement with Osama Ben Ladin on many social issues. They would have more in common with him than Americans like me, because they both want to oppress people with their religous views and make other people conform to their religous laws.

I think its great that Pat speaks the truth. I've always respected him for that, although I disagree with him on what to do, I think he generally analyzises things pretty honestly, he just comes to crazy conclusions.

[Kimber Scott]

11. Yes, he is right.

Our values are our values - right and wrong - and they are as individual as we are. They are not one size fits all and they can't, and shouldn't, be implemented through the barrel of a gun.

[loathesomeshrub]

6. Krauthammer is an idiot, and he also looks like the pig people on

the twilight zone episode, Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

[Eric J in MN]

7. The first half of that essay is ok, but

When Buchanan writes the below, he is saying people against teachers leading prayers in public schools are the enemy.

"If the president wishes to fight a moral crusade, he should know the enemy is inside the gates. The great moral and cultural threats to our civilization come not from outside America, but from within. We have met the enemy, and he is us. The war for the soul of America is not going to be lost or won in Fallujah."

[indigobusiness]

8. He occassionally lurches perilously close to truth...

as he did in your exerpt.

The man is enigmatic.

[indigobusiness]

9. For example

this part blows my mind.

When Bush speaks of freedom as God's gift to humanity, does he mean the First Amendment freedom of Larry Flynt to produce pornography and of Salman Rushdie to publish "The Satanic Verses" – a book considered blasphemous to the Islamic faith? If the Islamic world rejects this notion of freedom, why is it our duty to change their thinking? Why are they wrong?

[loyalsister]

10. What about this?

"If conservatives reject the "equality" preached by Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, NARAL and the National Organization for Women, why seek to impose it on the Islamic world? Why not stand beside Islam, and against Hollywood and Hillary?

In June 2002 at West Point, President Bush said, "Moral truth is the same in every culture, in every time and in every place."

But even John Kerry does not agree with George Bush on the morality of homosexual unions and stem-cell research. On such issues, conservative Americans have more in common with devout Muslims than with liberal Democrats."

Sounds like there could potentially be more envy than contempt towards those we are fighting against in the minds of some. Imagine how a guy like Lynndies' abusive boyfriend would hash it out with some of the prisoners if they ever got a moment to trash women?