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William F. Buckley: Bush No Conservative
William F. Buckley, the man who revived conservatism when it was at its depths and helped build a foundation for its future ascendancy under Ronald Reagan, says President Bush is not a conservative. Buckley, founder of National Review magazine, was interviewed this weekend by CBS News at his home in Connecticut. The sage Buckley told CBS News that the war in Iraq is a failure and he blames Bush.
"If you had a European prime minister who experienced what we've experienced it would be expected that he would retire or resign," he said.
"I think it [the Bush agenda] has been engulfed by Iraq, by which I mean no other subject interests anybody other than Iraq ... The continued tumult in Iraq has overwhelmed what perspectives one might otherwise have entertained with respect to, well, other parts of the Middle East with respect to Iran in particular."
Story Continues Below Buckley took issue with neo-conservatives who favor a more interventionist foreign policy, including a pre-emptive air strike against Iran and its nuclear facilities even though there is evidence that Iran is supplying weapons and expertise to Hezbollah in the conflict with Israel. "If we find there is a warhead there that is poised, the range of it is tested, then we have no alternative. But pending that, we have to ask ourselves, 'What would the Iranian population do?'" Buckley said he supports the Bush administration's policy on North Korea's nuclear weapons threat, believing that working with Russia, China, Japan and South Korea is the best way to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. Buckley said Bush's primary challenge for the remainder of his term as president comes not from foreign threats, but rather, from his own domestic agenda.
"I think Mr. Bush faces a singular problem best defined, I think, as the absence of effective conservative ideology — with the result that he ended up being very extravagant in domestic spending, extremely tolerant of excesses by Congress. And in respect of foreign policy, incapable of bringing together such forces as apparently were necessary to conclude the Iraq challenge." Asked what foreign policy legacy will he leave to his successor, Buckley replied: "There will be no legacy for Mr. Bush. I don't believe his successor would re-enunciate the words he used in his second inaugural address because they were too ambitious. So therefore I think his legacy is indecipherable"
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics: Inside Cover Stories
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