Date: 23 Nov 1999
Time: 22:12:01
Remote Name: 24.30.154.205
By GLEN JOHNSON Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Reform Party presidential contender Pat Buchanan declared Monday that the longstanding U.S. policy of ``dual containment'' of Iraq and Iran is unsustainable and he suggested opening a dialogue with the oppressive nations.
Delivering a foreign policy speech, Buchanan asked: ``If we can engage China and North Vietnam and even North Korea, why can we not at least talk to Iran and Iraq?''
The third-party candidate also countered claims by his rivals that he is an isolationist.
``As one who has supported every great foreign policy initiative from Kennedy to Reagan, I reject the isolationist label, especially when made by those who spent their youthful careers marching against the Cold War policies that brought us victory,'' he told an audience at the libertarian Cato Institute.
The remarks followed a foreign policy speech Friday by Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, and a controversy in September stirred by publication of Buchanan's book, ``A Republic, Not an Empire.''
Buchanan derided Bush's speech, saying: ``I think the governor read it very well.'' As to the substance, in which Bush proposed toughening relations with Russia and China, Buchanan said Bush was being advised by people who ``feel a sense of loss'' at the passing of the Cold War and ``are looking for a conflict.''
Buchanan's book created a stir by questioning the United States' entry into the war against Nazi Germany. The former television commentator wrote that Hitler's Third Reich was no threat to the country after 1940.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who also is seeking the Republican nomination, condemned the writings, while New York developer Donald Trump, who is considering challenging Buchanan for the Reform nomination, labeled Buchanan an ``anti-Semite.''
In his speech, Buchanan excoriated the Clinton administration's foreign policy, saying it had misfired in Somalia, Haiti and the Sudan, risked alienating Russia, and had brought misery to the people of Serbia without removing its leadership during NATO airstrikes.
He also challenged claims of Serb atrocities in Kosovo, saying one estimate put the number of ethnic Albanian deaths at 2,500.
``Twenty-five hundred is a terrible tragedy; Auschwitz it is not,'' Buchanan said.
Buchanan said he supports a ``new Americanism'' that defends the nation but makes no claim to foreign lands. ``The blunders other nations make are not ours to correct,'' he said.
Focusing on Europe, he said: ``It is time to say 'yes' to Europe, time to let go, as doting parents whose children have reached maturity must let go. Indeed, let us accelerate the day of Europe's reclaiming its full independence by setting a date certain for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops.''
Buchanan said the United States was wrong to support China's entry into the World Trade Organization because it reduces U.S. economic leverage over the nation.
He also urged the United States to ease nationalist tensions in Russia by pledging not to expand the NATO alliance eastward.
Turning to Iran and Iraq, Buchanan urged a new dialogue with the countries, enemies since the Iranian hostage crisis that ended in 1981 and the Persian Gulf War with Iraq.
``Have we not suffered enough terrorist atrocities - from the massacre of our Marines, to Pan Am 103, to the World Trade Center, to the embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar (es Salaam) - to awaken our elites to the reality that interventionism is the incubator of terrorism?'' Buchanan asked.
``Or will it take some cataclysmic act of violence on U.S. soil to finally awaken our gamesmen to the costs of global hegemony?''
The Clinton administration has advocated a dialogue with Iran, but authorities in Tehran have refused. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is reported again to have rejected the idea. ``Petty and weak individuals want to subject the Iranian nation to the undignified state of some countries which are American protectorates,'' Iranian newspapers quoted Khamenei as saying.
In a dialogue, U.S. officials say they would raise concerns about Iranian weapons programs, its alleged involvement in terrorism and efforts to undermine the Middle East peace process.
The United States has kept Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in a strategic box since the U.S.-led Gulf War ended in 1991. U.S. and British warplanes patrol so-called ``no-fly'' zones over large swaths of northern and southern Iraq to protect opposition and minority groups from attack.
Iraq says the zones violate international law and its military pilots and missile launchers have been trying to shoot down a U.S. or British plane since December, following four days of U.S. bombing aimed at destroying suspected weapons of mass destruction sites.