Buckley: Our Mission Has Failed

In Iraq, is it time to for American policy-makers to admit that events have trumped policy? The chaos feeding on itself there now has some pundits calling for America’s withdrawal, others say more troops are needed. Some, who say they are conservatives, insist America can’t afford to lose in Iraq.

The Nov. 3, 1967 cover of TIME

Well, the best known conservative voice in the USA for over 50 years now says it’s over, over there -- the wheels have come off the Bush strategy to overthrow Iraq’s longtime dictator in order to establish a modern democracy. Now that conservative icon William F. Buckley, Jr. has said, “One can’t doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed,” will he, too, be vilified by the Bush administration’s propaganda machine?

Does brassy Karl Rove have the temerity to trash the founder of the National Review? We’ll see. “It Didn’t Work” is the title of Buckley’s column today. Basically, he says enough is enough:

“...Our mission has failed because Iraqi animosities have proved uncontainable by an invading army of 130,000 Americans. The great human reserves that call for civil life haven't proved strong enough. No doubt they are latently there, but they have not been able to contend against the ice men who move about in the shadows with bombs and grenades and pistols.”

To read the rest of Buckley’s white flag-waving piece click here.