These are hard days for the neocons. There are defections left
and right (well, mostly right). Those who remain on board seem as
wobbly as Kate Moss after an all-night coke binge. Last month
Francis Fukuyama — always an irresolute neocon — formally severed
all ties: “Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body
of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support.” At
home the Venerable Buckley pronounced the Iraq War a lost cause.
Andrew Sullivan offered a mea culpa to his readers in
Time. (“The shock of 9/11 provoked an understandable but
still mistaken over-estimation of the risks we faced.”) Abroad, the
Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections gave critics more ammo.
Given the choice in a free and open election, Palestinians opted
for a terrorist organization. Iraq, the cliche-mongering press
reminded us, “teetered on the brink of civil war.” To some it
appears the neoconservative moment is over.
Critics maintain that Islam and democracy are incompatible; that
Arab democracy is an oxymoron. In his new book America at the
Crossroads, Fukuyama chastises neocons for the apparent double
standard in opposing social engineering at home, but taking it on
the road to the Middle East. “By definition, outsiders can’t
‘impose’ democracy on a country that doesn’t want it,” he writes.
“Demand for democracy and reform must be domestic.” The Cato
Institute’s Leon Hadar seconds this: “The U.S. push for democracy
in the Middle East has been a self-defeating strategy that has made
the region safe for nationalism and other radical forms of ethnic,
religious, and tribal movements….It’s difficult for American
neoconservatives who fantasize about a global multicultural
community committed to liberal democratic values to admit that
perhaps the Muslims are not ‘like us’ after all.”
The childish temper-tantrum over the Danish Khartoons would seem
to support Fukuyama and those who insist that Muslims do not share
our values. Then again the U.S. media doesn’t appear to share them
either, for only a handful of media outlets showed the drawings.
And as for free speech and diversity, when was the last time you
heard a conservative balance NPR’s Daniel Schorr’s far-left
screeds? Imagine if the Detroit Free Press or some such
paper ran an editorial cartoon highly offensive to some American
ethnic group. Would not all hell break loose?
WE ARE TOLD THAT Muslims despise liberty and freedom and relish the
sound of their own chains rattling. This conveniently ignores that
fact that half of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims live under
democratically elected governments in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia,
Nigeria, and Turkey. The U.S. is home to 4 to 7 million Muslims.
Every day hundreds cross legally and illegally into the U.S.,
Canada, Australia, the EU and South Africa. If these nations were
to open their borders today, there wouldn’t be enough people left
in the non-democratic countries to field a soccer team.
President Bush has said (and it bears repeating) that our
security depends on the spread of democracy to unfriendly nations.
The question remains how best to achieve this? A recent report by
Freedom House states that nonviolent “people power” movements are
the strongest force in most successful transitions to democracy.
The report focuses on 67 countries where dictatorships have fallen
since 1972. To that end, the Bush administration has announced it
would increase funding for dissident groups in Iran. Fukuyama
likewise suggests this route, beefing up USAID, the National
Endowment for Democracy, and the State Department. Sure, and maybe
we can “dialogue” Osama bin Laden into giving himself up. On this
point in particular, neocons, like the military historian Victor
Davis Hanson, disagree:
More often than not, democracies arise through violence
— either by threat of force or after war with all the incumbent
detritus of humiliation, impoverishment, and revolution….[T]he
birth pangs of democracy are often violent, and we should pay
little attention to critics who clamor that the United States
cannot prompt reform through regime change. Instead, let skeptical
Americans (who were not given their own liberty through debate)
adduce evidence that freedom is usually a result of mere petition
or always indigenous.
It is true a minority will always oppose freedom. However, those
Sunnis who bombed the Samarra mosque are but the remnants of
Saddam’s dying fascist regime — thugs who believe they can regain
their lost power by provoking a sectarian war. Yes, there will be
sectarian violence. And it will not be limited to Iraq. The Shiites
and the Sunnis have been beating each other over the head since the
Prophet ascended into paradise in 632. Sectarian violence is common
in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, and until recently Ireland.
The fascists do not speak for the Iraqi people, nor can they be
allowed to win.
Do not write off the Iraqi people. The alternative is a return
to Taliban or Baathist rule. And nobody, save the Taliban and the
Baathists, wants that.
