Editing Max Boot

==On the Iraq War==

"In 2003, more than a month before the invasion of Iraq, I wrote in the Weekly Standard that the forthcoming fall of Baghdad 'may turn out to be one of those hinge moments in history -- events like the storming of the Bastille or the fall of the Berlin Wall -- after which everything is different. If the occupation goes well (admittedly a big if), it may mark the moment when the powerful antibiotic known as democracy was introduced into the diseased environment of the Middle East, and began to transform the region for the better.'

"At the time, this kind of talk was dismissed by pretty much everyone not employed by the White House as neocon nuttiness. Democracy in the Middle East? Introduced by way of Iraq? You've got to be kidding! The only real debate in sophisticated circles was whether those who talked of democracy were simply naive fools or whether their risible rhetoric was meant to hide some sinister motive. Well, who's the simpleton now?"("Neocons May Get the Last Laugh,"3/3/2005 [http://articles.latimes.com/2005/mar/03/opinion/oe-boot3]