Wow, some sort of trans-dimensional vortex has scrambled time


Pat Buchanan decides to attack this Richard Cohen op-ed column and party like its 1938 .

Buchanan wants us to believe that a war must be perfect in order to be labeled "good." This is a juvenile attitude that strikes me as deeply unconservative. Central to conservatism is its appreciation of limits, a recognition of life's tragic dimensions. A conservative statecraft recognizes that sometimes the only choices are between bad and less bad. It also understands the limits of power.

PJB's screed ignores all of this. He blames FDR and Churchill for events they had no power to prevent. WWII did not create Stalin. The allies did not order the Red Army to rape its way across Eastern Europe. It is absurd to suggest that the carnage east of the Elbe was avoidable if the West had sat on the sidelines and watched the Wermacht win in Russia.

Similarly, the war paved the way for Mao in China. That, however, was not Roosevelt's aim. It was Tojo who invaded China and crippled the Chiang government. The United States can hardly be blamed for Tokyo's expansionist fantasies or the consequences of their belligerence.

The bottom line is that the world faced three vicious, aggressive totalitarian regimes in 1938. FDR and Churchill eliminated two of them and partially contained the third. While that is not the best of all outcomes, it is close the best realistic result. Buchanan is keen to tote up the negatives, but he never tells us what course of action could have achieved more.