In several conservative circles, support for the war in Iraq is practically a litmus test for sanity. To oppose the war — or worse, to call for the redeployment of U.S. troops — is a sin on par with treason. At least, that is, until recently.
Over the last eight days, the number of high-profile conservatives balking at the war the war in Iraq has grown quite a bit. Let’s see, there’s…
National Review’s William F. Buckley wrote late last week, “One can’t doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed…. Our mission has failed because Iraqi animosities have proved uncontainable by an invading army of 130,000 Americans.” He added that the Bush administration “has, now, to cope with failure.” (I seem to recall Howard Dean saying something similar not too long ago, which was condemned as aiding and abetting the enemy at the time.)
The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol told Fox News’ audience over the weekend that the war in Iraq was not a “serious effort.” Kristol said, “We’ve been trying [to defeat insurgents], and our soldiers are doing terrifically, but we have not had a serious three-year effort to fight a war in Iraq as opposed to laying the preconditions for getting out.”
Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly told his national radio audience that the United States should “hand over everything to the Iraqis as fast as humanly possible” because “[t]here are so many nuts in the country — so many crazies — that we can’t control them.” O’Reilly then claimed that the “big mistake” was actually “the crazy-people underestimation.”
And, as Evan Derkacz reminded me, Project for a New American Century neo-con Francis Fukuyama declared eight days ago that neoconservatism “should be discarded on to history’s pile of discredited ideologies,” and described the ideology that helped shape the war plan as “both a political symbol and a body of thought [that] has evolved into something I can no longer support.”
Of course, as Nick Kristof noted today, the troops themselves aren’t exactly optimistic either.
A new poll to be released today shows that U.S. soldiers overwhelmingly want out of Iraq — and soon.
The poll is the first of U.S. troops currently serving in Iraq, according to John Zogby, the pollster. Conducted by Zogby International and LeMoyne College, it asked 944 service members, “How long should U.S. troops stay in Iraq?”
Only 23 percent backed Mr. Bush’s position that they should stay as long as necessary. In contrast, 72 percent said that U.S. troops should be pulled out within one year. Of those, 29 percent said they should withdraw “immediately.”
That’s one more bit of evidence that our grim stay-the-course policy in Iraq has failed.
At this rate, when Bush looks around for those who still support his handling of Iraq, the president will be able to count on John McCain, Joe Lieberman … and almost no one else.