Taki Magazine

It was as inevitable as the proverbial death and taxes, or John Podhoretz ordering four pizzas. The true impetus behind the Iraqi invasion, the trillions spent, the hundreds of thousand dead Iraqis, and four thousand of our own, was conservatism—not the neocons. That old bag, the New York Times, has just given a glowing review to a book by one Peter Scoblic, whitewashing the Trotskyites, aka neocons. And who was the individual most responsible for Iraq? Why no one else than my old mentor and friend William F. Buckley.

Here’s Scoblic’s train of thought: Buckley rallied the conservatives during the Cold War, and Goldwater, Reagan, Bush I and II followed his bellicosity. Easy as pie.

Six years ago I predicted that the neocons would turn around and blame others for their disastrous plan to make the Middle East safe for Likud. The neocons’ and AIPAC’s first concern is one and the same: what’s good for Tel Aviv. So when the you know what hit the fan, blame the blameless became their policy. In my last cruise with Bill Buckley in the summer of 2005, he told me that he had been wrong to back the war. I reported it in my column with his blessing. Out of respect I did not bring up the subject of the neocons being Trojan Horses—and false friends—because it was Buckley who had brought them in out of the Trotskyite cold. Perhaps he thought the Trojan Horse was mythology.

Bill deserves better. As does America. I write this on Memorial Day. A much better book to read is Final Salute by Jim Scheeler. You will be shattered as the writer follows Major Beck, the Marine who is assigned to the worst job in the world, knocking on the door of those who have lost their next of kin in action and telling fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and wives that their loved ones have paid with their lives for answering the call of duty. The book is never maudlin. And certain names are missing. Those of the neocons. Not one of those ratlike figures have a brother, son, cousin thrice removed to have served. But smug as ever they put their makeup on and appear on Fox TV—they need lotsa makeup—and rattle their swords. On this day there should be a law prohibiting them from appearing.

And another thing. If we had Saddam Hussein today, perhaps oil would be worth 20 dollars a barrel. One sign from us and old Saddam would signal to the towelheads he might pay them a visit down south. The towelheads have engineered the crisis to drive up oil prices. The Damoclean sword which hung over them in the name of Saddam is gone, Uncle Sam is bogged down, and Iran is the
major power in that miserable part of the world. In the meantime, according to The New Republic’s Scoblic,  it’s all Bill Buckley’s fault. Bravo neocons. We used to worry about America Firsters. The real problem are America Lasters, as in the neocons.