Another neocon admits disaster, but admits nothing

Charles Krauthammer’s column is entitled, “Why Iraq Is Crumbling.” His analysis of what went wrong is not particularly insightful, and leaves neocon premises intact:

Are the Arabs intrinsically incapable of democracy, as the “realists” imply? True, there are political, historical, even religious reasons why Arabs are less prepared for democracy than, say, East Asians and Latin Americans who successfully democratized over the past several decades. But the problem here is Iraq’s particular political culture, raped and ruined by 30 years of Hussein’s totalitarianism. [Italics added.]

Notice the significant word “even” placed before the word “religious.” The thought that the religion of Islam may be the problem is placed last, showing that Krauthammer views it as the least likely explanation for the difficulties of implanting democratic government in Iraq. The explanation, as Krauthammer sees it, is that a political culture of trust was destroyed by 30 years of Ba’athist and Saddamite rule. This conclusion leaves the neocons free to attempt to democratize other Muslim countries, and of course, to keep supporting the mass importation of Muslims into our country.

At least Krauthammer does acknowledge that Arabs are less “prepared” for democracy than other peoples and cultures. But he does not acknowledge that he and his fellow neocons stoutly denied this idea for the last several years. The neocons repeatedly insisted that Iraq could be democratized, just as German and Japan had been. Bush and Rice said that to doubt that Iraq could be democratized was condescending and racist. The neocons never criticized Bush and Rice for saying this. The neocons and the Bush administration did not exactly encourage thoughtful debate about their Iraq policy, did they?

Because the neocons and the Bush administration were closed to rational discussion and sought to prohibit others from engaging in it as well, rational argument could not demonstrate their obvious folly to them. Only undeniable failure on the ground could demonstrate it.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 24, 2006 07:46 PM | Send