Letter: Buchanan must not be student of history

He also said we had no vital interest in the Balkans. These are all sounds from the isolationists of the 1930s.

There were lessons from the 1930s and '40s that harbingered the beginning of World War II. Pat's comments are reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain's utterances after he signed the Munich Pact in 1938. In that pact signed by Hitler (Germany), Daladier (France) and Chamberlain (England), in which they ceded the Czech Sudetenland to Germany, Chamberlain returned to England and proclaimed that the pact ensured "peace in our time."

That was a terrible miscalculation. Hitler went on to ignite the world in war and begin the Holocaust. Sounds to me like Milosevic's designs for a greater "Serbia."

It is time for Pat Buchanan to join us in today's world. He still lives with the isolationist mentality of the 1930-40 era. Let's face it: Our economy, environment and the next famine or refugee crisis affects us all.

We live on one planet divided by imaginary lines. National interests no longer stop at the boundaries of the United States. That which affects people in one part of this globe affects us all. Whether the cause is war, ethnic cleansing, environmental contamination or famine, the repercussions are felt everywhere.

RAY HARBERT

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