Via Andrew Sullivan’s site, I looked at this new article at TNR about a recent turn on the National Review cruise. It’s quite informative in as much as you may think you know how the hard redoubts of the American right have completely lost their collective mind. But, truly, you have no idea.
When we last checked in with ur-neocon Norman Podhoretz, he was suggesting that the British should have “bomb[ed] the Iranians to smithereens” for recently detaining that group of British sailors. It turns out that Podhoretz appears to be one of the growing number of ‘wingers for whom deepening denial of reality must be compensated for, in equal measure, by escalating genocidal fantasy. Here we join Podhoretz locking horns with fellow conservative luminary Bill Buckley …
He is a bristling gray ball of aggression, here to declare that the Iraq war has been “an amazing success.” He waves his fist and declaims, “There were WMD, and they were shipped to Syria. … This picture of a country in total chaos with no security is false. It has been a triumph. It couldn’t have gone better.” He wants more wars, and fast. He is “certain” Bush will bomb Iran, and “thank God” for that.
…
“Aren’t you embarrassed by the absence of these weapons?” Buckley snaps at Podhoretz. He has just explained that he supported the war reluctantly, because Dick Cheney convinced him Saddam Hussein had WMD primed to be fired. “No,” Podhoretz replies. “As I say, they were shipped to Syria. During Gulf war one, the entire Iraqi air force was hidden in the deserts in Iran.” He says he is “heartbroken” by this “rise of defeatism on the right.” He adds, apropos of nothing, “There was nobody better than Don Rumsfeld. This defeatist talk only contributes to the impression we are losing, when I think we’re winning.”
The audience cheers Podhoretz. The nuanced doubts of Bill Buckley leave them confused. Doesn’t he sound like the liberal media? Later, over dinner, a tablemate from Denver calls Buckley “a coward.” His wife nods and says, “Buckley’s an old man,” tapping her head with her finger to suggest dementia.
Nuanced?
It certainly was a hard blow when Rumsfeld left. No doubt about that. And I would probably be remiss if I didn’t mention that some of the other National Review writers noted in the piece do seem roughly in touch with the reality of the situation in Iraq, if reluctantly so.
Coming next, how far will conservatives go in aping the rightists of inter-war Germany (1918-39) in their efforts to duck responsibility for Iraq?
