Buchanan on Monroe Doctrine

It is tiresome to debate idiots, but as that seems a requirement these days for being “conservative,” one must, or else become a victim.

Buchanan states that he was moved by the sight of “a huge U.S. cargo plane . . . carrying American wounded (from Panama) to the finest medical treatment in the world.” This marvel, that maimed American teen-agers will get patched up, was, Buchanan asserts, part of the Reagan buildup in military spending. He further finds consolation that the biggest, best armed country in the world only suffered 27 dead in invading one of the smallest, poorest armed countries in the world. “Was it not worth it?” he concludes.

Buchanan might, given a shred of decency or intelligence (and having been part of the Reagan cabal, I doubt these qualities exist in any great measure within him), note the irony that The Times ran an editorial (“The Word They Use Is Scary”) that very day about the “scary” future facing America in its ability to deal with the national catastrophe (and in its response, disgrace) AIDS. Thousands of people are and will face slow death because there are not enough doctors or nurses or beds or medicines to go around. Our governments, local as well as federal, are unable, unwilling or uninterested in patching up these young men and women. Likewise we see trauma centers closing, free clinics shutting down--and not least, 37 million Americans who have no medical insurance whatsoever and will probably suffer unnecessarily. There is simply not enough money to go around, says President Bush, says Congress, say the Buchanans of America’s media circus.

Was it worth it, Mr. Buchanan?

ALEX TORRALBAS

Venice