December 17, 1999
Opposition to Sanctions Marks Change
by Buchanan
By FRANCIS X. CLINES
WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 -- Conceding "a
dramatic departure from what I've
argued and believed," Patrick J.
Buchanan today called for an end to
economic sanctions by the White House
as a "sword that slaughters children"
and entrenches dictators.
"Our sanctions are sowing seeds of
hatred that will one day flower in
acts of terrorism against us," Mr.
Buchanan said in a speech at the
Center for Strategic and International
Studies.
Mr. Buchanan, who is courting
independent voters and the Reform
Party for its nomination for
president, said his decision to oppose
sanctions grew out of recent reporting
on the effects of sanctions in
aggravating the health and nutrition
problems of rogue nations like Iraq.
"When Arab terrorists murder Israeli
children," Mr. Buchanan said, "we
Americans are rightly filled with
horror and disgust. But what do Arab
peoples think of us when U.S.
sanctions bring death to literally
thousands of Iraqi children every
month?"
A supporter of sanctions in the past
against Cuba, Mr. Buchanan said
conditions had changed with the fall
of Soviet Communism.
"Because of the siege mentality our
embargo has created inside Cuba," he
said, "our sanctions may today be the
main pillar of Castro's power."
Sanctions, he continued, "may fairly
be called America's silent weapon of
mass destruction whose victims are
almost always the weak, the sick, the
women and the young."
In his address, Mr. Buchanan cited
what he called counterproductive
sanctions by the Clinton
administration in a dozen countries,
including Iran, Libya, Afghanistan,
Haiti, Myanmar, India, Pakistan and
Serbia. He vowed that as president he
would end all sanctions depriving
food, medicine and other basic
necessities to the suffering subjects
of rogue nations.
"Embargoes and blockades are weapons
of war," Mr. Buchanan said.
They must be designed, he continued,
"so that innocent people are not the
principal casualties."
Speaking of Serbia, Mr. Buchanan
criticized the administration for
first "smashing" the country with a
78-day bombing campaign, and then
denying Serbs heating oil and aid in
removing the debris of war.
"This immoral policy shames us as a
people," Mr. Buchanan said. "We are
putting old men, women, and children
under a sentence of death for failing
to do what NATO itself could not do:
overthrow Slobodan Milosevic."
Dictatorial governments do not justify
sanctions, Mr. Buchanan said, adding,
"No one has deputized America to play
Wyatt Earp to the world."
He denounced "all this Beltway
braying" about the United States being
the world's indispensable super power.
"Have we, too, succumbed to the hubris
of hegemony?" he asked.
There are better ways to punish rogue
states, Mr. Buchanan said, including
cutting off overseas assets of
dictators, denying them international
loans and levying tariffs to deny them
hard currency.
Accusing President Clinton of
"monumental hypocrisy" in applying
sanctions, Mr. Buchanan said, "He
blockaded, starved and invaded tiny
Haiti for human rights violations, but
he proudly chaperones China into the
W.T.O."
Later, when answering questions about
his presidential campaign, Mr.
Buchanan exulted that he was not
caught up in the primary campaigns in
Iowa and New Hampshire but was instead
visiting Reform Party gatherings
around the nation.
"I have seen no organized opposition,"
he said. "We are winning delegates
quietly, and we are moving on this
nomination."
Mr. Buchanan said he had always known
he would be working at the complex
Reform nomination process with little
public notice. His aim is to "surface"
again in March, when, he said, the two
major party candidates will be clear
and the public will begin to be
anxious at the choice.
"People," he said, "are going to look
out and say, 'Oh, my Lord, that troll
is still out there under the bridge.'
"
Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company
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