Fatal Friendship


"It is often dangerous to be an enemy of the United States," Henry Kissinger used to say during the final years of Vietnam, "but to be a friend is fatal."

The sordid tradition began at the Tehran summit in 1943. There FDR told Stalin he could keep that half of Poland that had been ceded to him in the Hitler-Stalin pact, even though Great Britain had gone to war to restore the territorial integrity of Poland. 

FDR only asked that Stalin not mention the betrayal before the 1944 election, lest it cost him some Polish wards in Chicago. 

After the Poles were sold out came the turn of the Nationalist Chinese. They were denied the money and war material to resist the Soviet-supplied Communist armies of Mao. Millions of Chinese who had cast their lot with the United States paid with their lives. 

After our POWs came home from Hanoi in 1973, Congress all but cut off military aid to Saigon, denying the South Vietnamese even the right to die on their feet when the North invaded in 1975. 

Under Jimmy Carter, Somoza in Nicaragua and the Shah did not meet America's exacting standards for human rights. Both were jettisoned, and, instead, we got the Sandinistas and the Ayatollah. 

Now, it seems to be Saudi Arabia's turn. 

From the time FDR met with King Ibn Saud aboard the U.S.S. Quincy in the Suez Canal, on the way home from Yalta, the Saudis have lined up with us. When Moscow armed Nasser in Egypt and Syria and Iraq during the Cold War, Saudi Arabia remained steadfastly pro-American. 

In the Reagan era, the Saudis worked closely with us to drive the Red Army out of Afghanistan. In 1991, the king hosted the Army of Desert Storm, helped pay for the liberation of Kuwait, pumped oil to keep the prices down in the run-up to war. 

Now we learn from John Solomon of the AP that when NATO ally Turkey denied us basing rights, "Saudi Arabia secretly helped the United States far more than has been acknowledged, allowing operations from at least three air bases, permitting special forces to stage attacks from Saudi soil, and providing cheap fuel.." 

Gen. T. Michael Moseley, architect of the air campaign, calls the Saudis "wonderful partners." "We operated the command center in Saudi -Arabia. We operated airplanes out of Saudi Arabia, as well as sensors, and tankers," said General Moseley, adding that he treasured "their counsel, their mentoring, their leadership and their support."

Thousands of special forces were allowed to launch operations from the kingdom. "Between 250 and 300 Air Force planes staged from Saudi Arabia, including AWACS, C-130s, refueling tankers and F-16 fighter jets during the height of the war," Solomon learned. 

Only Britain did as much to ensure an American victory. Why, then, the vendetta against Saudi Arabia among those who supported the war? For much of the animosity is coming from pundits who pride themselves on hard-headed realism but sound like 1960s peaceniks denouncing the "corrupt and dictatorial Thieu-Ky regime." 

Here is National Review on the Saudis: "Potentially, the most dangerous foreign-policy issue confronting the Bush administration, and its greatest dereliction in the War on Terror, is its see-no-evil approach to terror's bankers, the Saudis." 

Michael Ledeen includes the Saudis on his target list of "terror masters," though Riyadh, given recent attacks, seems at the top of bin Laden's enemies list. Commentary magazine wants the Saudis taken down as part of a "World War IV" on hostile Arab regimes. 

Have any of these people asked themselves who would take power in Saudi Arabia should the monarchy fall? Do they care? Do they want instability, chaos, and revolution to throw up an Islamic republic in Saudi Arabia and similar regimes across the Persian Gulf so that America will have no choice but fight a thirty years war? 

Saudi-bashing makes for good politics. Even John Kerry has gotten in on the act. But there is a vital interest here. Can anyone believe that if the Saudi monarchy collapses in revolution the regime that rises in its place will be as friendly to this country or that, in deciding whether to pump or not to pump oil, it will be as receptive as the kingdom is today to America's needs and requests? 

As he observed George III kick away the crown jewels of the empire, the North American colonies, Edmund Burke made an astute observation, "A great empire and little minds go ill together." 

It applies to a goodly slice of the American elite today. If we are unprepared to deal with flawed friends, it is time to give up the pretense of being a world power, for most of mankind is flawed, not excluding our heroic selves.

Pat Buchanan has been an advisor to three presidents and has thrice sought the office. A founding panelist of four political television shows, he currently hosts MSNBC's daily news program, "Buchanan & Press" and appears on "The McLaughlin Group." He writes a nationally syndicated newspaper column and is the author of six books including the recent bestseller, The Death of the West, which sold over 200,000 copies.

Source: The American Conservative


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Older Comments:
ABDUL FROM USA said:
I agree ---You cannot be friend (unless you are a JEW) or enemy of usa and Israel.
Look at the history and what happened to theirso called friends(puppets)- Shah of Iran, Pak's President-Zia-ul Haque), Saddam , Norieaga and so on.
The next target is saudi( the so called oil friends?)
GOD (ALLAH) BLESS WORLD
2004-06-04

AKBAR KHAN FROM CANADA said:
Buchanan's watered down explanations hold no weight in my eyes. because he is trying to dominate the leftwing viewpoint. You say USA and the Kingdom of Saud worked so closely together to drive the Red Army out of Afghanistan, it was NOT America, nor was it the Saudis responsible for this. The BRAVE MUJAHIDEEN of the time whom you later abandoned and left to die with no support ARE the heroes. Perfect example of American foreign policy, you take advantage of others to achieve your ultimate goals under the guise of helping poor innocent people, just like US Evangelical missions in Iraq do, and missionary work in Africa fooling Muslims, building masjids for them letting them pray in them, and then giving a "khutbah" from the bible!!, in that masjid fooling uneducated poor Muslims into believing that Christ is their lord and saviour, right?

Ya Ummati...

Tell the truth about what your criminal leaders of yesteryear like FDR really stood for - lying.

I say to Pat Buchanan, take your dirty hands off of my Ummah or else sooner or later we will get our hands on so called leaders like yourself and put you to justice for the crimes and cover ups you have committed and the criminal "leaders" in Muslim nations you have conspired with, causing state terrorism the world-round. I am not afraid to speak this way and indeed anyone who thinks I am wrong for speaking this way, I put it this way, I am not afraid to be truthful and I am not afraid to stand up to defend the truth instead of taking a consoled position. Born and raised in Canada, I encourage other young Muslims to speak up against these jellyfish leaders and their crimes of conspiring with other state "leaders" to bury their murderous atrocities.

Let me put it this way. Gaining prestige, and rank in the eyes of those in superior positions than I, will never get me to lax from being firm in defending Islam, no one can or will ever bribe me to shutup!
2004-06-03

LARS MOLLERP FROM NORWAY said:
Yes I see Buchanan is right. But as it goes no good and honest man will ever become President in the US. Which is why Kucinich is wasting his time and money. Americans are far too self absorbed, petty, ignorant, self-righteous and easily led by a Christian/Jewish right wing media to be trusted to ever ever elect a good man for President. I am sure if that great man like Abraham Lincoln were alive today he would surely loose to some right wing clown cheered by the US media. I am very surprised at what has happened to the US media though. From the days of Vietnam and the Nixon years when integrity in journalism was everything to what it is now, an institution hijacked by lunatic religious Christian and Jewish Mullas. I think not just the American administration but the American nation as a whole has lost its character and its soul, and they do not even know or care.
2004-06-03

AKBAR KHAN FROM CANADA said:
Where was Mr. Pat Buchanan when the Clinton administration was giving out night vision equipment for Russian soldiers to kill Chechyans...when you talk it sounds like a lot of hot air! No one wants to be America's friend, and Mr. Buchanan should get this through his head. Muslims whom you cannot fall into traps by soothesayers, be critical of them! We cannot say it is destiny and do nothing!

Buchanan is no better than this Bush admin. and deserves no praise from Muslims. This is what I think, if I have said anything to offend any of my Muslim brothers or sisters, please say something, or hold your peace and try to understand what I am saying...educate yourselves about places like Chechnya and Dagestan, and let's stop taking bribes and staying quiet by not speaking out against the worst kinds of terrorists in the world today who have killed millions of people in comparison to those they claim to be fighting. State terrorism of Israel, Russia, the USA, and all those other countries when they fool Muslims, there is no usefulness in buying into their lies.

American foreign actions around the world are tantamount with how flawed you people are. These aging British agents in Arabia are on one hand your friends, and on the other hand they are the root of this so called "terror" in the world. My br's n sr's, do not to buy into this separate standard, double standard, double talk, whatever you want to call it, and work to help each other.

As Muslims, where has our honour, courage, self respect, and all other great qualities stressed by our Nabi Kareem (saaw), all gone? It is exactly as the holy prophet (saaw) said would happen to us, that we would become like this, with Iman until hte evening, and after maghrib, we become kaffirs by taking these bribes, buying into the lies of these secular governments, and letting them run us over. I say not anymore, do something about it, I know I should, and I plan to build on that every day Insha'Allah.
2004-06-02

AHMED ASGHER FROM BAHRAIN said:
Buchanan is absolutely right and this article goes to show how much the stooges of the ME bow down to America. But the irony IS, that if they had equally been kind to their own public, then they would have won on both sides. Not only that, they have also put down any local opposition to their rule and continually supported the US. This has naturally irked some and now they are paying the price for their arrogance.

How wonderful it would have been if we had benevolent dictators who first and foremost looked after their own people regardless of sects and then had good relationship with America BUT always based on the interest of their own people first. No one would have objected. But whilst they have done the opposite they have accumulated the billions in their personal accounts whilst some crounge for a living in the richest country on earth. Truly they are no different than Saddam, but now the Zionists are targetting them since there is an agenda here just as kessinger has said in not so many words. It has nothing to do with being a faithful dog. These people would sell their own daughters to get to their aims.

Sadly, as the people, we just have to sit and watch events unfold and history repeat itself as if our brains can not fathom cause and effect. We, the people have been taken for a big ride by all parties and I am not sure if Buchanan is asking for my sympathy or my amusement? But I do know he writes for his home audience and one can see the treachery at play right there.
2004-06-02

AKBAR KHAN FROM CANADA said:
Let me tell you a little bit about you heroic selves Mr. Buchanan...where were you in 1994-1996 when 80,000 Chechyan Muslims were slaughtered under the command of Boris Yeltsin, something that was financed with support from the Clinton Administration when Al Gore praised Yeltsin for his fight against so called terrorism???? .. American policy murdering our Muslim brothers and sisters in Chechnya and Dagestan!??

And another thing, we Muslims need to realize what is going on here in Chechnya. Even after the disintegration of the Russian Federation, how many Muslim countries recognize the right of Chechnya to be self governing as an independent state? Iran's foreign minister and government even today proclaims that it is an "internal matter" for the Russian government to deal with, further, Kuwait went further and signed an agreement with the Russian government...

Ehere is the outrage by the International community as the same way they cry outrage for the independence of the state of East Timor?? If Chechyan's were not Muslims, only then would the international community show outrage and disgust, but because they are Muslims no one cares about HUMAN BEINGS 80,000 killed by this state terrorism!!! 70 million land mines haev been scattered in Chechnya, does anyone care about our Muslims in Sheeshaan/Chechnya!?

Our Muslim leaders, hah, they disgust me and are a mockery to this Ummah.

Always buying and bidding for time in making false agreement with Chechyans, manufacturing bomb explosions in Moscow, and Razenah, blaming Muslims while in Razenah Russian soldiers were caught red handed placing bombs in this city - if this was done by "terrorists" they would be proud to pronounce that they committed this act but no one did. Russians have raised the city of Grozny to the ground. How brave our Muslim nations are for speaking out and doing something against this zulum and oppression.
2004-06-02