An obvious point, I guess. But if you’re going to write an article claiming that “a growing faction of conservatives is voicing doubts about a prolonged United States military involvement in Iraq, putting hawkish neoconservatives on the defensive and posing questions for President Bush about the degree of support he can expect from his political base,” then you really ought to adduce more evidence than:
a) Pat Buchanan, who is not a part of Bush’s base (you might recall him opposing the first Gulf War on the dubious grounds that it might help Israel, running against both Bushes pere et fils for the Presidency, and his years of railing against the free-trade, Confederacy-betraying, Jew-loving sins of the current administration), continuing to oppose a war he’s opposed all along;
b) the Cato Institute, which is not a part of Bush’s base and has been pretty seriously critical of him for the big-spending, protectionist sins of the administration, continuing to oppose a war it’s opposed all along;
c) one Republican Representative who opposed thew war in the first place continuing to oppose the war now; and
d) National Review which has always supported the war and never been primarily neocon in its orientation, continuing to support the war and not be primarily neocon in its orientation.
Ordinarily one runs into the problem of reporters seeking to explain a change with reference to something that hasn’t changed. Here we have the oddity of a reporter seeking to describe a change using only cases and examples that have not changed.
Now maybe the paleo critique of the war or the libertarian critique of the war are finding new, more-willing listeners in the mainstream right. Maybe the semi-realist National Review line is winning people over who had been attracted to the Weekly Standard democratization line. But we have no evidence of that. That would require talking to some people who have changed their minds, not quoting all the ones who haven’t.
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