Scowcroft voices opposition to Iraq

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Brent Scowcroft was a pretty popular guy with the GOP back in the early nineties. He and Norman Schwarzkopf became household names after the brief and not-so-bloody first Gulf War. Call it Monday morning quarterbacking, but he finally comes out in the New Yorker and states what so many of us have known for a couple of years now. For me, the good thing about it is that another conservative is showing signs of letting this administration go down in flames.

The first Gulf War was a success, Scowcroft said, because the President knew better than to set unachievable goals. "I'm not a pacifist," he said. "I believe in the use of force. But there has to be a good reason for using force. And you have to know when to stop using force." Scowcroft does not believe that the promotion of American-style democracy abroad is a sufficiently good reason to use force.

"I thought we ought to make it our duty to help make the world friendlier for the growth of liberal regimes," he said. "You encourage democracy over time, with assistance, and aid, the traditional way. Not how the neocons do it."

The neoconservatives -- the Republicans who argued most fervently for the second Gulf war -- believe in the export of democracy, by violence if that is required, Scowcroft said. "How do the neocons bring democracy to Iraq? You invade, you threaten and pressure, you evangelize." And now, Scowcroft said, America is suffering from the consequences of that brand of revolutionary utopianism. "This was said to be part of the war on terror, but Iraq feeds terrorism," he said.