By Ding Gang, People's Daily Editor

August 17, 2006
China - People's Daily - Original Article (English)

Is the age of the Neoconservative over?

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Iraq seems to have been forgotten. On August 10, the shocking scenes at London's Heathrow airport raised the fears of the British and Americans to the highest level and attracted media attention from around the world. People were frightened, imagining a dozen airplanes exploding in the sky over the Atlantic. Passengers waiting for flights couldn't shrug off the shadow of fear taunting their hearts.

But in Iraq, it takes no imagination to see that lives are being lost in bombing and explosions every day. While British police were busy arresting terrorists, a suicide bombing in Iraq killed 35 people and wounded 120. These Iraqi civilian are no different from the passengers in London's Heathrow airport; they too have relatives, friends and families.

With the help of the global media, the paranoia felt in London has spread around the whole world at lightning speed. Terror and war seem to have become the new normal in this world. After the war in Lebanon and Israel broke out, Western experts discussing a Third World War and wonder whether or not a global war in the nuclear era would be a fatal disaster for mankind.

But what meaning does this sort of discussion have for those who live in Iraq and whose relatives have already been killed during war? For every family who has a relative and every individual who has lost a friend, the fatal disaster of war has already come to pass.

When U.S. President George W. Bush spoke about the London plot, he claimed that the incident was a strong warning to America that "our country is at a war with Islamic fascists." In fact, shouldn't this be a warning to America about the wisdom of continuing the Iraq War? As more than 100,000 American soldiers fought for democracy in Iraq, British youths were plotting a large scale terrorist attack. Isn't this a great irony?

Three years ago, American neo-conservatives were confident that democracy could be transplanted by military force to Iraq. But more and more, reality in Iraq has revealed to the American people that the entire exercise was a trap, a ploy, and is now a nightmare that simply will not go away. The attempt to transplant democracy by force of arms has had quite the opposite effect than was intended; Iraq is on the verge of civil war.

The American people are using a range of methods to express their views on the Iraq War. In Connecticut's recent Democratic Primary, well-known U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman lost to Ned Lamont, a millionaire with virtually no political experience. Media have suggested that Lieberman was defeated because he remains a supporter of the Iraq War. His defeat sent a signal that there is a force rising against the war in Iraq.

Academics are also reflecting on what has transpired. In his recent bestseller America at the Crossroads , American-Japanese scholar Francis Fukuyama argued that democracy will grow within a society that it originates, but that it cannot be transplanted by military force. He argued that America's frustration with the Iraq War has forced the Bush Administration to return to realism, derailing the White House's determination to promote and implement democracy (by arms if necessary).

Neocon action figures.

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Some American scholars believe that there is cultural tradition ingrained in the psyche of the American people "to pursue shortcuts for anything." Since a powerful America has been built within just 200 years, is there anything that America cannot do? From the neo-conservative point of view, democracy seems to be instant anti-cold medicine. "Take it today, and the effects will be seen tomorrow." They assumed that the "seed" of democracy, so carefully nurtured in American history, culture and society, would be good in any part of the world. America has gone to great lengths to plant this "seed" in Iraq, but what has come of it? This might just be the end of neo-conservatism.

VIDEO FROM SAUDI ARABIA: NEOCONS ARE

THE CLOSEST THING THERE IS TO THE NAZIS

IQRA TV, SAUDI ARABIA: Excerpts from an interview with Saudi intellectual Awadh Al-Qarni, March 16, 2006, 00:01:40, Via MEMRI

"Fifteen years ago, the American intellectuals used to call them crazy, but now they are surprised to find that those crazy people are ruling America, and controlling the entire world. They say: We do not want America to be the leader of the world. We want it to rule and Americanize the world."

Saudi intellectual Awadh Al-Qarni