Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Saturday, Feb. 2, 2002

While generally supportive of the president in his war on terrorism, Buchanan told a jam-packed crowd of more than 300 college students Friday that Bush should not have specifically named Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

"If he intends to go to war against these countries, he should go to Congress and get the authority to go to war, as his father did in 1991," the author/commentator and sometime politician declared.

Secondly, he said, "with regard to Iraq, we don't have the troops in place now." Comparing this to lessons learned "in street fights as a kid," Buchanan opined, "You don't telegraph your punch before you're ready to throw it."

Third, the 2000 Reform Party candidate believes Saddam Hussein "doesn't have the mentality of the suicide model." The Iraqi dictator knows if he pursued a terrorist path, it would be "all over for him, his regime, his family, his legacy, everything."

Buchanan said that he was prepared to be persuaded otherwise but that Congress should be on board and public opinion prepared for all-out war, a lesson he said we should have learned in Vietnam.

He supports President Bush in his rejections of the ABM Treaty on missile defense, the Kyoto "global warming" treaty and the International Criminal Court. All of these agreements, he said, threaten U.S. safety or economy or both.

At the luncheon sponsored by Young Americans Foundation, held during but separate from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) elsewhere in the same hotel, Buchanan was asked how he would deal with illegal aliens.

Deport Illegal Aliens

The author of the best-seller "The Death of the West" responded there should be "systematic deportation" of illegals, starting with "any and all who committed any crime against American citizens."

Secondly, he said we should "get serious" about weeding out any illegal alien who has been "ordered deported and comes from an al-Qaeda country."

Then, he said, the U.S. should deal with corporations that deliberately bring in illegal aliens and hire them to "take jobs from working Americans."

"Take one of these fat cats and hang him out to dry, and send him to a maximum-security prison. That will get the message to the rest of them."

After the luncheon speech, Buchanan sat through a book signing that attracted a long line of people buying his latest tome, which was reviewed by NewsMax.com last month in a five-part series.

The thrice-unsuccessful presidential hopeful said he did not see himself re-entering politics. He ruled out any challenge to President Bush and said Americans had spoken clearly in November 2000.

In answer to a question, the TV commentator lamented the retirement of Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., who, next to Ronald Reagan, cared less than anyone "about what the [liberal] Washington Post said."

With all due respect to Helms' would-be successor, Elizabeth Dole, Buchanan said, "She's no Jesse Helms."

From NewsMax at a discount - get Buchanan's "The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil our Country and Civilization."

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Buchanan/Reform Party

Elizabeth Dole

George W. Bush

Immigration/Borders

Middle East

North Korea

Saddam Hussein/Iraq

War on Terrorism

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