Buckley Says Bush Will Be Judged on Iraq War, Now a `Failure'
2006-03-31 09:45 (New York)
By Heidi Przybyla and Judy Woodruff
March 31 (Bloomberg) -- William F. Buckley Jr., the
longtime conservative writer and leader, said George W. Bush's
presidency will be judged entirely by the outcome of a war in
Iraq that is now a failure.
``Mr. Bush is in the hands of a fortune that will be
unremitting on the point of Iraq,'' Buckley said in an interview
that will air on Bloomberg Television this weekend. ``If he'd
invented the Bill of Rights it wouldn't get him out of his
jam.''
Buckley said he doesn't have a formula for getting out of
Iraq, though he said ``it's important that we acknowledge in the
inner councils of state that it (the war) has failed, so that we
should look for opportunities to cope with that failure.''
The 80-year-old Buckley is among a handful of prominent
conservatives who are criticizing the war.
Asked who is to blame
for what he deems a failure, Buckley said, ``the president,''
adding that ``he doesn't hesitate to accept responsibility.''
Buckley called Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a
longtime friend, ``a failed executor'' of the war. And Vice
President Dick Cheney ``was flatly misled,'' Buckley said. ``He
believed the business about the weapons of mass destruction.''
Buckley, often called the father of contemporary
conservatism in America, articulated his beliefs in National
Review magazine, which he founded in 1955.
His conservatism
calls for small government, low taxes and a strong defense. Both
Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater said they got their
inspiration from the magazine.
In the interview, Buckley criticized the so-called neo-
conservatives who enthusiastically embraced the Iraq invasion
and the spreading of American values around the world.
``The neoconservative hubris, which sort of assigns to
America some kind of geo-strategic responsibility for maximizing
democracy, overstretches the resources of a free country,''
Buckley said.
While praising Bush as ``really a conservative,'' he was
critical of the president for allowing expansion of the federal
government and never vetoing a spending bill.
The president's ``concern has been so completely on the
international scope that he can be said to have neglected
conservatism'' on the fiscal level, Buckley said.
Buckley also offered his perspectives on other recent
presidents:
-- Richard Nixon ``was one of the brightest people who ever
occupied the White House,'' he said, ``but he suffered from
basic derangements,'' which precipitated his own downfall.
-- Ronald Reagan ``confounded the intellectual class, which
disdained him.'' Every year though, Buckley said, ``there is
more and more evidence of his ingenuity, of his historical
intelligence.'
'
-- Bill Clinton ``is the most gifted politician of,
certainly my time,'' Buckley said. ``He generates a kind of a
vibrant goodwill with a capacity for mischief which is very,
very American.'' He doubted that ``anyone could begin to write a
textbook that explicates his (Clinton's) political philosophy
because he doesn't really have one.'
Buckley exalted in what he sees as the conservative success
stemming from his call a half century ago in the National Review
to ``stand athwart history and yell stop.''
That, he remembered, was when Marxism was widely considered
``an absolute irreversible call of history.'' The folly of that
notion was demonstrated by the demise of communism a decade and
a half ago, he said.
Buckley said he had a few regrets, most notably his
magazine's opposition to civil rights legislation in the 1960s.
``I think that the impact of that bill should have been welcomed
by us,'' he said.
2006-03-31 09:45 (New York)
By Heidi Przybyla and Judy Woodruff
March 31 (Bloomberg) -- William F. Buckley Jr., the
longtime conservative writer and leader, said George W. Bush's
presidency will be judged entirely by the outcome of a war in
Iraq that is now a failure.
``Mr. Bush is in the hands of a fortune that will be
unremitting on the point of Iraq,'' Buckley said in an interview
that will air on Bloomberg Television this weekend. ``If he'd
invented the Bill of Rights it wouldn't get him out of his
jam.''
Buckley said he doesn't have a formula for getting out of
Iraq, though he said ``it's important that we acknowledge in the
inner councils of state that it (the war) has failed, so that we
should look for opportunities to cope with that failure.''
The 80-year-old Buckley is among a handful of prominent
conservatives who are criticizing the war.
Asked who is to blame
for what he deems a failure, Buckley said, ``the president,''
adding that ``he doesn't hesitate to accept responsibility.''
Buckley called Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a
longtime friend, ``a failed executor'' of the war. And Vice
President Dick Cheney ``was flatly misled,'' Buckley said. ``He
believed the business about the weapons of mass destruction.''
Buckley, often called the father of contemporary
conservatism in America, articulated his beliefs in National
Review magazine, which he founded in 1955.
His conservatism
calls for small government, low taxes and a strong defense. Both
Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater said they got their
inspiration from the magazine.
In the interview, Buckley criticized the so-called neo-
conservatives who enthusiastically embraced the Iraq invasion
and the spreading of American values around the world.
``The neoconservative hubris, which sort of assigns to
America some kind of geo-strategic responsibility for maximizing
democracy, overstretches the resources of a free country,''
Buckley said.
While praising Bush as ``really a conservative,'' he was
critical of the president for allowing expansion of the federal
government and never vetoing a spending bill.
The president's ``concern has been so completely on the
international scope that he can be said to have neglected
conservatism'' on the fiscal level, Buckley said.
Buckley also offered his perspectives on other recent
presidents:
-- Richard Nixon ``was one of the brightest people who ever
occupied the White House,'' he said, ``but he suffered from
basic derangements,'' which precipitated his own downfall.
-- Ronald Reagan ``confounded the intellectual class, which
disdained him.'' Every year though, Buckley said, ``there is
more and more evidence of his ingenuity, of his historical
intelligence.'
'
-- Bill Clinton ``is the most gifted politician of,
certainly my time,'' Buckley said. ``He generates a kind of a
vibrant goodwill with a capacity for mischief which is very,
very American.'' He doubted that ``anyone could begin to write a
textbook that explicates his (Clinton's) political philosophy
because he doesn't really have one.'
Buckley exalted in what he sees as the conservative success
stemming from his call a half century ago in the National Review
to ``stand athwart history and yell stop.''
That, he remembered, was when Marxism was widely considered
``an absolute irreversible call of history.'' The folly of that
notion was demonstrated by the demise of communism a decade and
a half ago, he said.
Buckley said he had a few regrets, most notably his
magazine's opposition to civil rights legislation in the 1960s.
``I think that the impact of that bill should have been welcomed
by us,'' he said.
