E-mail:

’Unfortunately, most Iraqis are not Western liberals. Pretending that we have the power to make them into Western liberals over night, or anytime soon, is an illusion.’ What does that imply about Bush’s grand vision–which NRO supported the last time I checked–of remaking the Middle East by implanting liberal democracy?

ME: It means, first of all, that Iraq is less modern than the Bush administration and many war supporters—including myself—thought going in. It means that “liberal democracy” was always a pipedream. We have always tried to avoid using that phrase in NR for obvious reasons. What you can realistically get is something better than Saddam and that’s “democracy with Iraqi characteristics,” as Bush has sometimes put it I believe. Unfortunately, some of those Iraqi characteristics aren’t going to be very palatable. Finally, I believe the invasion has already had positive shock-effects in the Middle East and will—if Iraq develops in a reasonably stable and pluralistic way—continue to do so for years.