[SolidWood]

If “Neocon” means strong proactive US foreign policy and will to change the status quo with the aim to stabilize and further US supremacy, then the answer is yes. I think the Neocon agenda in the Middle East is being vindicated, although the way to success has been more arduous than expected. The Neocon agenda will be needed to deal with Iran, Syria and coming crises.

[Sherman Logan]

Their attacks on the elected al-Maliki government in Iraq often make them look like illiberal “bad cops”

Oddly, I believe this has had a highly positive, although accidental, effect.

Give the Iraqis, screaming about how they want the Americans to leave, an alternative group of Americans who actually will leave. Suddenly Iraqis have an entirely different perspective on the occupation.

[DB]

Iran.

Doing nothing doesn’t solve the problem of a nuclear Iran.

[Mark was here]

I still do not understand exactly what a neocon is. I believe it is a term invented by liberals, and so I don’t care for its use or believe it is even useful.

One should not define one self in terms defined by the enemy.

I reject the term “capitalism” in favor of “Free Enterprise” along the same lines.

[jrsmc]

Petraeus for President.

[randog]

...they (dems) will claim that their strong idealistic diplomacy is the proper corrective to the Bush administration’s unilateral misadventures.

They will campaign as if history began on September 12, 2001.

[hellbender]

most leading Democrats quietly are backing away from their talk about bringing American troops in Iraq home on rigid timetables.

That explains the growing popularity of Ron Paul. The antiwar fanatics know that facts and current events mean nothing to a zealot like him, and he will go on screeching a message even more extreme than the Demons' one: "Get out of Europe! Out of Japan! Korea!"

[Valin]

“With Iraq Improving, Will Neocon Ideas Return?”

I wasn’t aware they ever went away. I really must check my mail more often.

[stevem]

I think I might be a mesocon.

[Christian4Bush]

bump

[Names Ash Housewares]

Better yet, will neocom ideas fade?

[Tolik]

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

       Let me know if you want in or out.

Links:    FR Index of his articles:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson
                His website: http://victorhanson.com/
                NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
                Pajamasmedia:   http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/

[JamesP81]

With Iraq Improving, Will Neocon Ideas Return?

So long as we can get neocon foreign policy ideas without the profligate domestic spending, free trade fetishes, and total lack of border security, then I don't see a problem with this.

[Billthedrill]

It's easy to get hung up in definitional arguments over the slippery term "neocon" - that meant one thing in Buckley's day and means quite a different, even opposite thing now. Might as well avoid it altogether. People using it seem to have a vague idea of what they mean by it but frankly, I don't.

So now, despite their noisy anti-war base, most leading Democrats quietly are backing away from their talk about bringing American troops in Iraq home on rigid timetables.

Edwards isn't, for one. He may end up being the Dems' sacrificial lamb to the antiwar wing because of it. Most of this will go by the board once the primaries are over anyway - whichever candidate the Dems choose will be triangulating like mad after that is settled out and a radical withdrawal plan just isn't in the cards. By then it is likely that they'll be working as hard as they can to see that Iraq is forgotten altogether as an issue because if things continue as they have been it will be a major loser for them. "It's the economy, stupid" will be - it already is - their refrain just as in 1992.

I'm not sure I agree with Hanson's formulation of the "neocon" intentions with respect to fomenting democracy in the Middle East. It has been presented as some sort of Wilsonian master blueprint but in practice it was simply the best of a number of bad policy options. That it has worked as well as it has is a true testament to the dedication and skill of the armed forces sent to implement it.

The options with respect to Iran are considerably wider in range and to conclude from our activities in Iraq that a crusading army is about to be sent to free the Iranians from theocracy and issue them all voter pamphlets and fuzzy puppies is, I think, to misunderstand how we got where we are in Iraq. Those policymakers described as "neocons" certainly had a good deal of input but the cabal of Bismarkian manipulators seeking to bring Western governments to the world is much more myth than reality.