And who isolated US?

• Author: Buchanan, Patrick J.
• Position: 160220528
• Pages: 66(3)

"I'm concerned about protectionism, isolationism." Those were the first words President Bush spoke as he sat down Wednesday, 31 January, at an editorial board meeting at the Wall Street Journal. (1)

Reading his remarks calls forth only sadness. For neither the president nor his acolytes at the Journal appear to have learned anything from the disasters their ideas have visited upon the party and country.

Can Bush not see that the isolation of America is a result of the war he launched on a nation that, no matter how odious its regime, did not threaten us? Can he not see clearly now the idiocy of the Journal's 10-year crusade for a "MacArthur Regency" in Baghdad? Has this president learned nothing? And, if not, what does that portend for Iran?

As for protectionism, does Bush not see the link between the rise of economic nationalism in America, the rout of his party in November and the humongous trade deficits he has been running up?

When the trade figures for 2006 come in, it will be revealed that the United States ran the greatest trade deficit in history, close to $800 billion, near 7 per cent of GDP. And the greatest trade...