OP-ED: How NOT to Spread Democracy (Globe and Mail, CANADA)

With George W. Bush's presidency about to end, what will happen to the neo-conservatives? Rarely in the history of American politics has a small number of bookish intellectuals had so much influence on foreign policy as the neo-cons had under Mr. Bush and his Vice-President, Dick Cheney, neither of whom are noted for their deep intellectual interests. Most presidents hope to attach some special meaning to their time in office. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, gave neo-con intellectuals the chance to lend their brand of revolutionary idealism to the Bush-Cheney enterprise.

Writing for such journals as The Weekly Standard, and using the pulpits of think tanks, such as the American Enterprise Institute, neo-cons offered an intellectual boost to the invasion of Iraq. The logic of the American mission to spread freedom around the globe - rooted, it was argued, in U.S. history since the Founding Fathers - demanded nothing less. Objections from European and Asian allies were brushed away as old-fashioned, unimaginative, cowardly reactions to the dawn of a new age of worldwide democracy, enforced by unassailable U.S. military power.

The neo-cons will not be missed by many. They made their last stand in the presidential election campaign of John McCain, whose foreign-policy advisers included some prominent members of the fraternity. (Most were men). None, so far, seem to have found much favour in the ranks of Barack Obama's consultants.

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