George Will: Time for Bush to See the Realities of Iraq

This blog is in a series of posts from my readings of THE RIGHT WAR? THE CONSERVATIVE DEBATE ON IRAQ. Please contribute your comments. The following is a discussion of Chapter 8, a republished article by George Will, May 4, 2004, Washington Post.


After hearing his press conference in the White House, George Will blasts President Bush for suggesting that critics of the war that are making a cultural argument are in fact making a racist argument. In that press conference in May 2004, Bush had said, “There’s a lot of people in the world who don’t believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern. I reject that. I reject that strongly. I believe people who practice the Muslim faith can self-govern. I believe that people whose skins aren’t necessarily – are a different color than white can self govern.”

Well, this is an interesting argument. Three years later, in 2007... based on the experience of Iraq and many other books and articles I have read about cultural, institutional history, etc, I am beginning to believe that culture is important in building a free society or "democracy" as the pro-democracy crowd will say.

Just a day or so after Bush made these statements, George Will attacked his notion on many levels. First, he pointed out that not all Americans are “white” – and we can self govern, so this "cultural" argument, if it is made in the way Bush is suggesting, isn’t a racist argument because America is made up of many different people who can live in a free society.

Will then quotes the late Senator Patrick Moynihan who once said that “The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.” Will follows, Will says, “Here we have the real issue about Iraq …” In this, Will is suggesting the experiment in "spreading democracy" by force is a liberal project, not a conservative one.

Finally, he cites Condoleeza Rice’s view, when she says that there is scholarly evidence that democratic institutions do not merely spring from a hospitable culture, but that they can help create such culture. He agrees that they can, but he says that “it would be reassuring to see more evidence that the administration is being empirical, believing this can happen in some places, as opposed to ideological, believing that it must happen everywhere it is tried.”

Will is making a realist argument about the idealistic goals the Bush administration has for Iraq. He quotes Hamilton, who said “I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they out to be.” Will says, “This is the core of conservatism … This administration needs a dose of conservatism without the (neo) prefix.”