[Marxism] William F. Buckley Jr. praises "New war hawk" Kerry

[Lou Paulsen <loupaulsen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Buckley is "reassured" by Kerry's "honorable" "endorsement" of Bush's war 
effort.

"Get from your paper supplier the thinnest sheet in the inventory, and you 
won't succeed in wedging it between the Republican and the Democratic position 
on the nature of our strategic objectives in Iraq. "

"[C]ritics of the war will have to exert themselves in other ways than merely 
to support the election of John Kerry."

This speaks for itself -

Lou Paulsen


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ucwb/20040811/cm_ucwb/thenewwarhawk&cid=128&ncid=1501

THE NEW WAR HAWK


By William F. Buckley Jr.
Six months ago I ventured in this space that the Democratic position on the war 
in Iraq  was the single most critical question in U.S. politics. The statement 
made on Monday by John Kerry is the climactic event in this matter. Senator 
Kerry said that notwithstanding all that is known now, whatever have been the 
developments in the past year, if he had it to do again, he'd vote as he did: 
in favor of giving the president the power he requested, before going on to 
wage war in Iraq.
Kerry made this faintly more tolerable to the anti-war segment by saying that 
he was pleading, after all, a point of constitutional rectitude: The president 
should have the power inherent in his role as commander in chief. Kerry did not 
trouble to ponder what it is the Constitution was talking about when it said 
that only Congress could declare war. Never mind; we don't declare wars any 
more, we just fight.

But outstanding in political meaning was less what Kerry said about standing by 
his vote than what he said about the long-term commitment we have undertaken. 
Surely he would pledge to reduce our troops in Iraq by next summer, even if he 
wasn't prepared to simply call them home, as Democratic contender Howard Dean 
had demanded.

Well, here is how Kerry put it: "I believe if you do the kind of 
alliance-building that is available to us, that it is appropriate to have a 
goal of reducing our troops over that period of time. Obviously we have to see 
how events unfold."

Indeed. How events unfold. What events?

Here is where Kerry underwrote the Iraq venture in terms extraordinarily 
comprehensive. "The measurement has to be, as I've said all along, the 
stability of Iraq, the ability to have the elections, and the training and 
transformation of the Iraqi security force itself." Get from your paper 
supplier the thinnest sheet in the inventory, and you won't succeed in wedging 
it between the Republican and the Democratic position on the nature of our 
strategic objectives in Iraq.

This is reassuring, by most lights. The nation is at war; it is comforting that 
both political parties support the war. What is astonishing is that the entire 
vector of U.S. politics is here affected. The Democratic Party, through its 
leaders, has expressed itself with progressive force against the Iraq war. It 
was certainly expected that Democratic challenger John Kerry would pound home 
his criticisms of President Bush

Public support for the war has diminished in the 17 months since we went in. 
This reflects the absence of the weapons of mass destruction, the disaffection 
of some of our allies, the intransigence of the insurgents, and the mounting 
fatalities. The approval of the war has reduced from 73 percent early on to 
about 49 percent, and the dynamics of democratic government would suggest that 
the Democratic challenger would proceed, if not to deconstruct the war, at 
least to criticize the conduct of it and the assumptions associated with it.

Mr. Kerry is saying that our commitments continue until democratic elections in 
Iraq are held. This is a dream, though not, we like to think, extravagant. The 
New York Times has published an update on concrete questions, from which we 
learn that there is bad news (the insurgents have risen from 5,000 in April to 
20,000 today), but that estimates of support for the new Iraqi government are 
at 68 percent, and 80 percent of Iraqis believe that life will improve under 
the new government. Already there is an increase in oil production and in 
electricity.

It is an honorable thing for John Kerry to do, to associate himself so fully 
with the whole Iraq enterprise. Mr. Bush can take satisfaction from that 
endorsement, and critics of the war will have to exert themselves in other ways 
than merely to support the election of John Kerry.

(EDITORS: If you have editorial questions, please contact Alan McDermott at 
amcdermott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)-->






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