Neocon optimism on Iraq

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Neocon optimism on Iraq

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- Happy days are here again. Or so say William Kristol and Robert Kagan, the co-helmsmen of America`s neoconservative establishment. In their upbeat Weekly Standard assessment of the Dec. 15 Iraq parliamentary elections, they ridicule 'sour experts' whom they assert are going far out of their way to explain why 'the peaceful election of a national assembly for a fully self-governing Arab democracy was not a turning point.' But the election, according to Kristol and Kaplan, was no less than an 'eruption of democracy in the heart of the Arab world.'

Meanwhile, another neoconservative fellow traveler, Lawrence Kaplan, writes in The New Republic that while Americans have an understandable affliction of 'milestone fatigue' after all previous celebrated 'turning points' -- ranging from the capture of Saddam Hussein to last October`s constitutional referendum -- failed to trigger a stabilizing cycle in Iraq, Dec. 15 'really was a milestone.' In an assessment echoing Francis Fukuyama`s yesteryear notion on the 'end of history,' Kaplan confidently writes that 'however torturous the path to Iraqi democracy may have been ... for America at least, the path ended' on the day of Iraq`s elections.

Their collective euphoria filtered up into President George W. Bush`s speech on Iraq this week. Although the election would 'not mean the end to violence', it was 'a landmark day in the history of liberty' which would establish 'constitutional democracy at the heart of the Middle East.'

Iraq may indeed end up surprising all those who doubt that democracy is an export commodity. And Kristol, Kagan and Kaplan -- as well as Bush -- may prove to be correct. Still, their respective interpretations seem more sentimental than logical -- not to mention self-serving.