NYT:Lack of Resolution in Iraq Finds Conservatives Divided

[Trajan]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/19/politics/19CONS.html

The New York Times

Lack of Resolution in Iraq Finds Conservatives Divided

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: April 19, 2004


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.

The continuing violence and mounting casualties in Iraq have given new strength to the traditional conservative doubts about using American military power to remake other countries and about the potential for Western-style democracy without a Western cultural foundation. In in the eyes of many conservatives, the Iraqi resistance has discredited the more hawkish neoconservatives — a group closely identified with Paul D. Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, and William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard.

Considered descendants of a group of mostly Jewish intellectuals who switched from the political left to the right at the height of the cold war, the neoconservatives are defined largely by their conviction that American military power can be a force for good in the world. They championed the invasion of Iraq as a way to turn that country into a bastion of democracy in the Middle East.

"In late May of last year, we neoconservatives were hailed as great visionaries," said Kenneth R. Weinstein, chief operating officer of the Hudson Institute, a center of neoconservative thinking. "Now we are embattled, both within the conservative movement and in the battle over postwar planning.

-snip-

THIS is huge .....

[KissMyAsscroft]

1. They will still vote for Bush..

We can hope to get a lot of them to stay home though..and they aren't getting any new recruits.

[alittlelark]

2. It IS HUGE................and ugly.and a blister on the butts of the

'TRUE BELIEVERS' But their Televangelist 'doctors' will deliver a cure.....in the form of BUSHISM.



Ignore cognitive dissonance, nothing to see here........




I BELIEVE THAT KERRY HAS THE (Intellectual) MEDS to resolve your 'boil-on-butt' problem.......but it will hurt you in the northern areas........uh,.......those furthest removed from the butt at this time

[bpilgrim]

3. the loss of a global security order that is uniquely friendly to American

principles and prosperity which was the neoCONs prime concern is the precise result of the actual execution of THEIR radical policies on the world.

these folks are a CLEAR and PRESENT danger to the american people and MUST be challenged before it's too late.

peace

[shockingelk]

4. 112 American deaths this month

112, count 'em: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_casualties_apr04.htm

Bush's* conservative base was promised an Iraq cakewalk. The fact that it hasn't been must not sit well with conservatives who bought into the fantasy. We all were offered a bill of goods. Some of us didn't buy it, others did. Some who did are certainly feeling buyer's remorse.

[NNN0LHI]

5. A couple of good quotes from the article

>>>"We don't want to put troops into a situation that is increasingly a public-relations problem for the president," said Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, a group of conservative political donors. "No one wants body bags coming home in September and October."<<<

>>>

In a recent interview, Representative John J. Duncan Jr. of Tennessee, one of the few Republicans who voted against the invasion, said he believed the administration should seek an exit soon. "I think we should announce to the world that no country has come close to doing as much for Iraq as we have, but there are a significant number of people who don't appreciate what we have done," Mr. Duncan said. "I think we should get on out, we should celebrate victory and we should leave."<<<

[Leilani]

6. Did you read the article?

It is saying the Neocons agree with Kerry...Bill Kristol wrote an editorial in the Weekly Standard backing Kerrys stance on Iraq.

And this is in direct opposition to the isolationist wing of the Repubs, who want out of Iraq as soon as possible.

Sounds like both the Dems & Repubs are split on foreign policy.