Buckley and Isolationism
Now I'm no biographer of Bill Buckley, but I do read his columns when I get my bi-weekly copy of National Review, and I have many of his books. Buckley is a legend in the movement, he is perhaps the most respected member if for no other reason due to his grandfather appearance in the conservative movement. But Mr. Buckley is far from a Isolationist, he has always been a cold warrior at heart and is perhaps (with the possible exception of Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan) the most famous anti-communist of the 20th century. He supported any military action required in order to bring down the evil empire. He and Pat Buchanan although possibly personal friends still, had a falling out a long time ago politically anyways due to some of Buchanan' s boarder line anti-semetic remarks in the past and his protectionist and isolationist foreign policy.
As far as his opinion of Bush, Buckley although often defending Bush has constantly said "He is no Reagan trust me I know." Referring to Buckley and Reagan's close personal friendship. Buckley's biggest problem with Bush JR has always been Bush's complete dedication to big government, which Buckley see's a hearsay to all that is conservative. It is from their that many of Buckley's arguments against Bush comes from.
To my knowledge of Buckley on the subject of Iraq and I could be wrong this is only what I remember, but if I recall he didn't take a public position on Iraq when the debate came around but he did defend the decision after it occurred. He has for a long time defended the Bush Administration's foreign policy, but he has also been frustrated by what he considers Bush's handling and running of the war. If I read correctly the context about "in four years we where in Japan" wasn't a comment about how exactly the two wars where similar, but how the fact remains in 4 years we concurred three of the most powerful empires of that area, and in almost 4 years we haven't been able to stop a bunch of peasants fascist and cowards who blow up innocent women and children. A point which basically disgust Buckley, which if I have read his recent articles correctly is his biggest argument against the war, and that is it isn't being run correctly. Therefor Buckley believes that only the Iraqi's themselves can solve this problem, and to a extent his is correct this is hardly a Isolationist view Buckley has never been a isolationist in fact he did more to help Reagan invent his anti-communist foreign policy then anyone else except for perhaps Burnham. Now of course the mechanics of how to get the anti-communist policy working came from many different individuals but one can not ignore that it was Buckley who since the end of WW2 beat that drum (the conquest of the evil empire) more then anyone else. Buckley is no isolationist, but he also isn't going to be (as Reagan said about the Soviet Union) "Ignoring the facts of history... and disconnect ourselves from the struggle due to unpleasant facts, is Foley." Buckley isn't saying pull out, he is saying that Bush's original plan and idea was wasted, and that now the only way we can win is to train the Iraqi's themselves to deal with the issue and support them the best we can but the United States on its own can't solve this problem unless we want to be their for a very long time. That is Buckley's position it is far from Isolationist.
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