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And can anyone navigate between a Zarqawi, a Sadr, and the Sunni rejectionists, much less the legions of Iranian agents, Saudi millionaires, and Syrian provocateurs who each day live to destroy what’s going on in Iraq?
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If we cant do it, no one can.
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And this is from the optimist in the crowd. Buckley did not back away from his pessimistic conclusion. In his next column, he wrote the following: “In four years we marched from Pearl Harbor to the heart of what was left of Tokyo and Berlin. In three years we can’t yet take a cab from Baghdad to its airport without an armed guard.”
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huh? Talk about apples and oranges.
Yes, we removed Saddam's government in LESS time than it took us to bring Japan to it's knees. Yes, the victory was comperable to Japan...Saddam's government is completely gone, and a democracy (already past it's first sucessful elections) is in it's place.
We are now in the reconstruction phase. He is comparing the
invasion phase of Japan, to the
reconstruction phase of Iraq. That is an apples to oranges comparison.
How long did it take
Japan to return to normality? And
they were all one faction...in Iraq we are dealing with at least 3.
In this case he is grossly oversimplifying the situation.
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Buckley is a conservative who understands, as he has written in the past, that some problems are intractable. If we cannot solve the problems of crime on our own streets, is it not presumptuous to imagine we can solve the problem of crime in Iraq?
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It is unreasonable to demand that Iraq's crime be
analogous to that of the US a scant few years after the overthrow of a dictator that held them in bondage for decades.
That is just ridiculous.
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If we cannot educate adequately many of our own beloved children in arguably the richest, most powerful nation on earth, why should we be optimistic that we can undo the collective brainwashing that has shaped the Middle East and Iraq for generations?
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Because we've done it before?
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But Buckley’s point cannot be ignored. The chance to secure Iraq quickly and decisively was squandered.
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Probably. It could have been done better. That does not mean we have failed.
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Iraq is in trouble. Only Iraqis can save it. That is Buckley’s point and it really isn’t debatable.
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Was that Buckley's point? To me his point seemed to be that he agrees with the liberals. That it is impossible fix Iraq.
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The clock is ticking. The longer it takes the United States to transfer vital military and security issues to Iraqis, the less our chances of succeeding.
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We will succeed
regardless. The only question is how long and how much it will cost us. Even your source said that.
I noticed some of the comments on that blog as well:
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It isn’t unexpected that Limbaugh gives due deference to his hero Buckley. But Limbaugh has had much more to say about Iraq than just the isolated comments cited by the author. Limbaugh is at once pragmatic and optimistic. He is critical of Bush when Bush deserves it, and defends him when appropriate.
http://www.intellectualconservative....y-vs-limbaugh/
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That is pretty much my view as well. Buckley clings to the isolationist views of the Paleoconservatives IMO...at least from what I have seen so far. I admit I have not seen a whole lot of material from him. Mostly shows on PBS.
By contrast Limbaugh definitely shares the neo-con crusader mentality. It is one of the reasons he is a hero of mine. He is not afraid to say "we must do it this way not because it is in our interests but because it is
right". I dont recall Buckley ever doing that.
Another writes:
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I hate to sound like a broken record (people Mr. Buckley’s age will remember that term), but the Antique Media is part of the issue. Due to hypersensitivity, exacerbated by Antique Media, the U. S. Military isn’t allowed to fight the way we did in WWII. And don’t forget, the occupation of Germany and Japan lasted many years. Mr. Buckley may remember his old phonographs, but seems to forget actual history in this case.
http://www.intellectualconservative....y-vs-limbaugh/
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Heh heh. My thoughts
exactly. I didnt write that but I wish I had.