Buchanan On McLaughlin: Fifty-Fifty Chance We Bomb Iran By Fall

It was an otherwise normal day in the Land of the McLaughing Group. John got to bellow, "The answer is HILLARY." And nobody minded that they weren't as relentlessly dogmatic in the Papism as Pat Buchanan, and the whole panel kinda sorta agreed on the issue of China and the Olympics, but because this was the McLaughlin Group, they all agreed to pillory each other with loud sounds from their cakeholes for our amusement. But, about halfway through the show, Pat Buchanan said something that didn't amuse - not one little bit I'm afraid!

BUCHANAN: But I'll tell you what's coming, John. Petraeus pointed right at the special groups supported by Iran, as the main problem now. They are firing rockets into the Green Zone, they're responsible for Basra. The president said that Iran better not make the wrong choice. We're looking at 140,000 troops there by the end of the year, and very possibly airstrikes in Iran before this fall.

Oh. Fantastic.

[WATCH.]

Later, Pat went back to this scary imagining, predicting: "Fifty-fifty chance of U.S. airstrikes on Iran by October." Paging Dr. Strangelove!

Comments

[deweshk]

Whatever the reason is that this neocon old guard is not retired already. His brains have gone stale.

[andyboy]

He and those just like him are running our country. This is the way they think. The only way they can come up with to deal with Islam is to kill it.

We can't let them aquire nukes and have all of that oil at the same time. They would become too powerful and have the ability to control the price of Oil thus holding us and the rest of the world economic hostage.

The United States has embarked on a make or break last ditch effort to avoid becoming a second tier power. The US must, at all costs, break the spirit and momentum of Islam or suffer the consequences of becoming a totally consumer driven economy. This is what they meant when they said we were becoming a service economy. We don't have anything that's worth anything anymore. Our industries are dead or dying. We don't make anything anymore that the world needs.

If we can aquire control over the world's Oil or most of it we could continue to call the shots.

Can we do it? This is seriously in doubt. Without a concerted effort by the US and a host of strong commited allies I'm afraid not.

When we fail there will be three kinds of hell to pay. Of that you can be certain.

[CaptainHowdy]

He's been quite vocally ANTI Neocon you fool.

He's not approving of strikes on Iran, he is warning people.

Do some reading before you post... idiot.

[dugan45]

If Buchanan is a neocon, why was he opposed to invading Iraq? Why is he opposed to invading other nations in order to take control of their natural resources, one of the main bullets in "Rebuilding America's Defenses," a primary neocon paper? And why is he opposed to establishing permanent bases in other nations, another key point in that same document?

[The 13 Colonies]

unfortunately I have to agree with Pat on this one. Allthough he has been saying this for quite a while. One would not have to be guest on any program to predict what could happen next.

[rbphoto]

The neocons believe the world is the same as it was during the OPEC Embargo of the 70's. In that situation, the embargo was destined to end as it did because the U.S. was their largest market. In today's world, if the United States were to attack Iran, particularly with nuclear weapons as has been intimated, in the ensuing chaos and recrimination, OPEC could well decide they have NO PROBLEM moving exports destined for this market to China, India, and the rest of the world. Make no mistake, Saudi Arabia is our friend as long as it is to their advantage. The producing nations, dumping their dollars, will gladly absorb a downturn for the opportunity to wreck our economy. The market price of oil will switch to the Euro, but with the dollar only so much paper and Bush having rendered the United States a rogue nation, only our gold will be accepted, if at all.
And the world in general, and the Arab world in particular, will be united in it's condemnation of the US. Our military, with no fuel except the few week's supply in the National Reserve, will grind to a halt. We wouldn't be able to defend our borders or evacuate Iraq.

I'm just a guy sitting at his kitchen counter. If I can reason out this scenario, why can't the people who are supposed to know WHAT THE FUCK THEY'RE DOING ?

[Sioen]

Amen. And well said.

[kae]

Bush/Cheney and the rest of the pathetic excuses we have in Washington know exactly what is going on and it appears as though they are too busy taking care of their own. We have NO representation. Just a bunch of filibustering A-holes leading us on and robbing us blind. We have NO representation.

[white mende man]

We wonder why we are becoming a third rate country, we used to feed the rest of the world until we started using food as a weapon now the rest of the world gets most of their food elsewhere. While we import most of what we consume from elsewhere. We impose sanctions and embargoes on countries while other countries sell and buy from those countries we consider pariah. We are so stupid, shooting ourselves in the foot time and time again.

[HamletsMill]

rbphoto,

Are you sure you did not go to well...er...Yale in another lifetime?

You are spot on in your analysis!

The ONLY reason the Chinese are not cutting our throats already is that it is not yet in their best self interest to kill their best trading partner. They want to keep the victim alive as long as possible to get more for their money. When push comes to shove over some future issue that is bigger than keeping us alive, then it is Tony Soprano time for us. We are currently the mark Jimmy Hoffa on the world stage and we are going right into the end zone at Giant Stadium when the moment comes for long knives. It is as simple as that. The current leadership of the U.S. cannot see this because they are idiots who do not live in the real world but in the Israel obsessed Neocon ideological cult bubble hall of mirrors. Their strategic dysfunctionality is endless.

Wouldn't you love to play high stakes poker against any person in the Bush Administration in Las Vegas. It would be child's play. China, Russia, and Iran will all win big out of this incredible fiasco. Israel will end up in even worse fear and the U.S. will have been brought to it's economic knees by 15 out of 19 hijackers who were from "our friends" the Saudis.

Our balls are in a vise and there is no way out.

[JeffersonState]

What you describe is going to happen eventially anyway; its simply a matter of time. Oil supply backlash will occur against the US someday, with or without our invasion of Iran.
I believe Bush and Co. (mostly Co,) know that unless we have our military firmly entreanched in the ME, ensuring tankers are floating this direction; Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the rest could just cut us off altogether at any time. As there are dwindling supplies, the country that controls the supply will have ALL the power in the coming decades. These men in DC now understand that.

Control the oil by ANY means. Control of oil is vital to remaining a superpower. More so than nuclear weapons.

This is the legacy Bush is banking his reputation on.

[Montanamotor]

They can - but they don't care a damn. It's the Neocon-ideology: You are only defeated, when you give in. It's their stubbornness, ignorance and dumbness, which keeps the USA in Iraq, killing american people by the thousands, wounding American people by the tenths of thousands, killing Iraqi people by the hundreds of thousands, wounding and displacing Iraqi people by the millions and, burning Dollars by the billions.

When all is said and done, the Iraq war will earn it's name in the history-books in infamy - as the greatest military blunder since the Battle of Stalingrad, and as the greatest politically motivated crime since the Shoa.

[neoconsareliars]

What if Iran gets a suitcase nuke into the white house first. Just a little one. Let the games begin.

[handymanhdw]

IF IRAN gets a suitcase NUKE into the white house, just hope Boy George is there.... that would be some payback for the 4100 lives our Citizens have given.... FOR HIS 115.00 OIL, LET ME TELL YOU, PEOPLE DOWN HERE IN TEXAS OIL FIELDS ARE LOVING THIS BASTRRDDDD

[lornejl]

There is no way the American people would put up with another unprovoked attack on another country.

Bwahahahahahah !

[Davwbaird]

They put up with one biggie and torture and all kinds of other crap and they will damn well put up with Iran being bombed and our invasion of China.

[BitJam]

I totally agree with what Buchanan is saying. I (not Buchanan) think Bush wants to attack Iran so he can become relevant again and possibly throw the election to Clinton/McCain. Here is a fuller analysis by Buchanan on antiwar.com:

Petraeus Points to War With Iran
http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=12673

[andyboy]

Pat Buchanan, pat buchanan, Pat, pat, pat

Pat Buchanan has to think up controversial things to say to get a blip on the publicity meter.

There's a 50-50 chance Pat will predict that there's a 50-50 chance we will be invaded by aliens by October.

I wonder when we will all just come right out and admit the "war" is on Islam and muslims. Not terrorists. Since you can't distinguish one from the other it makes sense to just be prudent and wipe them all out. Or at least bring them to the brink. Or coax them into kiling each other in a civil war.

The attacks of 9/11 made the American Oil companies panic. They suddenly realized that countries like Iraq and Iran could cause the price of Oil to explode causing worldwide economic upheaval. Our repsonse is typical. We will bring these heathens to heel. Brutally.

We can't afford to let these peope get nukes and form alliances with each other. They could become very powerful in a very short period of time. Everything was fine when we had cozy relationships with sultans and emir's. With the rise of radical Islam we have a legitimate threat to our dominance. We can't let that continue.

[pennst1143]

i dont know whats worse, that television stations give buchanan a microphone to say such silly things or that some of you people find him to be credible

[andyboy]

Most people found it silly to propose bombing. invading, overhrowing & occupying Iraq.

It may be a lot of things but it ain't siilly. In fact it's the most logical next step.

Do you think Petraeus and Bush are ratcheting up the Iran blame game for failure to succeed in Iraq just for an excuse?

You see in some way we want these countries to hate us. We taunt them in the hope that they will get the nerve to fight back even once. That would be enough to justify full scale attacks in broad swaths across the "rogue" Middle Eastern countries.

This scenario becomes increasingly likely as it becomes clear that we will not succeed in tranforming Iraq into a tranquil democratic panacea or oasis in the heart of Islamic hatred for the US. In fact one would have to be rather surprised if Iran did not attempt to aid the Shiite militia's in Iraq against an invader and occupier. One could surmise we are purposely galvanizing the assorted factions in the region to war. All we need is one large offensive from the Mahdi army for instance.

With enough casualties to inflame patriotic fervor and bloodlust for revenge at home we could easily find ourselves right back in the same emotionally fragile state we were after 9/11. Then anything goes as they say.

[HamletsMill]

andyboy,

This is another quite possible scenario you have laid out. War with iran will mean an escalation of weaponry too. Another seductive impulse to fight "war on the cheap" because we don't have the troop strength for anything else. The good old American military-political seduction drug of choice of air power and surgical "carpet bombing". President Cheney loves this stuff. So I do feel there is a 50-50 chance. There are definite forces in our government and in the world that would love full tilt boogie where anything goes. Admiral Fallon's resignation is cause for watching this very closely. I just don't know. It is very hard to think things out with any system of reasoning when it comes to this Administration. This is the price of unchallenged blind ideology sitting at the switch.

[lennix]

pat buchanan has been saying the same stupid things for years and the news shows keep letting him get away with these things be it about race telling women to shut up and the cable news clowns do nothing about it pat is old news still thinking he is still in the nixon era if anybody listen to nutty pat
has a problem oops i forgot the cable clowns do

[OldOne]

Buchanan is especially stupid when it comes to commenting on WWII. Sure, Hitler did not want war with Britain. All we had to do was let Hitler fight the Soviets, and all of us would have been happy, according to Buchanan. If only Churchill had let Hitler have his way, everything would have been fine, according to Pat.
Pat was anti-war until there was a chance the war could be ended with the 2006 elections. Then he became pro-war.
The man is an idiot, a hardcore racist, he should be off the air.

[Counterglow]

Buchanan is historically accurate about Hitler. There was a strong fascist movement in Britain (especially England) at the time, and it was well-represented in Parliament and the House of Lords. In addition, Chamberlain had made it plain that Britain was willing to put up with a lot in order to avoid war with Germany. Hitler had every reason to believe that if he handled things properly, he could wind up with a sympathetic government in England. Ireland was neutral and remained so throughout the war, and there have been persistent rumours that U-Boats refueled there.

If Churchill hadn't been elected, it's very reasonable to suppose that England would have let Hitler bite off a pretty large chunk of Europe without declaring war. Churchill also lobbied for war against Stalinist Russia after Hitler was defeated, but the US made it crystal clear they had no stomach for further bloodshed.

Too bad, in a way. A less viciously totalitarian and expansionist Russia would have meant no Cold War.

[IngeniousGirl]

We will bomb Iran before June. My son is in Iraq, there was a sudden change less than 3 days ago, very sudden, and without knowing anything I can tell you it will be before June. There is a readiness aspect to this that I would expect Jason, or even Seymor Hersch to pick up the vibs. It is already in motion in a few places you would least expect it.
This will be the crime of humanity.

[oldvet]

If Bush plans to bomb Iran in the next couple of months, Petraeus and his subordinate commanders will have to be alerted so they can be prepared to go on the defensive when all hell breaks out and Pro-Shiite Iraqis attack our forces throughout the country. American Embassy personnel and the 140,000 US mercenaries should be warned too as they will be easy targets. I would not count on Bush warning them.

At any rate, there should be plenty of advanced notice. As a Tet survivor, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be in Iraq when Bush bombs Iran.

[IngeniousGirl]

Let's just say the warnings out, and let's just say the resources are already in readiness. I wouldn't worry about the mercenaries, Bush and Cheney used them for security instead of the "finest fighting force in the world" last month when the snuck into the country. The mercenaries are in the loop. As for the Embassy personnel, evacutation is not easy by can be planned, what is important is what is going on upon the land, and the sea and the air.

[Davwbaird]

Ha,Ha, Ha, Ha they will not be alerted, its all about surprise you see.

[OldOne]

The Iranians have hundreds of missiles and can easily sink a few tankers and stop the flow of oil out of the gulf. Yes, the US does not get most of its oil from the Middle East, but oil is a world market, and those who would not be getting oil would be bidding for ours.

This would destroy our economy in short order. And just as we could not get oil to flow from Iraq with an invasion, we would not be able to restore significant oil production from the gulf, which has a largely shiite population in oil producing regions.

Finally, even Bush went to the United Nations to go to war with Iraq. It takes time to build a case, even a false one. Bush has no time to do this before another President is elected. So his war would be illegal, he and his associates could never leave the US without being arrested and shipped to the Hague. With no oil, US and World economy dying, Bush would not last long in office before he was impeached.

No, Bush wants to write books and make a fortune in retirement. The odds of an attack are far less than 50-50.

The neocons are hoping McCain can be elected, and have him attack Iran.

[ultramagnetic]

You know what's scary. I AGREE with Pat. With this current administration anything, and I mean anything is possible. They found rationalizations for Expanded Domestic Surveillance and Torture. It wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibilities for them to find one form Attacking Iran.

[appleknocker]

What's even scarier is that when the bombing starts, the "democrats" will rally 'round the flag. As Jon Stewart once said, we're in big trouble when the voice of reason is Pat Buchanan's.

[gakabani]

no kidding! The mafia of GB and criminals are on the loose and before the end of his presidency he will make sure that the USA becomes the Nazi State of America. Get the concentration camps ready.

[ChimpmasterDJ]

If we bomb Iran, we'll need a wheel-barrow full of Dollars every morning, just to buy a loaf of bread.... unti they print Two Million Dollar bills, anyway. China will devastate our currency and economy without firing a shot.

[notMcNuts]

McLaughlin is still on the air somewhere?? Who cares what a Nixon-loviing, antisemetic racist like Buchanan thinks about ANYTHING- except his stupid bosses at MSNBC??? Talk about a has-been with ZERO cred.!!!! And,nice comb-over,PAT!!!

[Harvo]

Would you buy a used car from this man ?

[tkondaks]

What is your problem with Buchanan?
Unlike Hillary Clinton, Buchanan has been opposed to the Iraq War from the very beginning.
You, Harvo, must be FOR the Iraq War.