Let's hope this is the end of Fukuyama. After all, the book that made him famous and worthy of a New York Times op—ed was The End of History and The Last Man, whichаasserted that the endpoint of world history was near and would lead to a world filled with capitalist liberal democracies. South and Central Americaаare reverting to socialist role models and dictatorships; Europe is not capitalistic (except maybe East Europe), Russia is sliding into KGBastan; China is a dictatorship. And on and on. In today's op—ed he blames Bush for the ills of the world and declares that his policies are un—American. He asserts that:

The Bush administration could instead have chosen to create a true alliance of democracies to fight the illiberal currents coming out of the Middle East. It could also have tightened economic sanctions and secured the return of arms inspectors to Iraq without going to war. It could have made a go at a new international regime to battle proliferation. All of these paths would have been in keeping with American foreign policy traditions. But Mr. Bush and his administration freely chose to do otherwise.

An alliance with the democracies of Europe? These were the same nations who so whole—heartedly supported Saddam Hussein in his defiance of the UN and during his attacks on US and British aircraft patrolling the no—fly zones. They supported him through thick and thin as he massacred Shiites and Kurds. Tightening economic sanctions? These sanctions were leaking like a New Orleans levee and were on the verge of collapsing all together. The Administration did try to get the return of inspectors into Iraq—this was what the interminable waiting period before the liberation of Iraq was all about.

Fukuyama goes on to talk about Bush's unilateralist foreign policy, ignoring the Democratic support for the war and the group of allied nations helping us in Iraq. For a historian, Fukuyama does not seem to know much history. He goes on to posit that there were noаrelevant connections between Iraq and Al—Qaeda. This is subject to some debate as Stephen Hayes at the Weekly Standard and others have pointed out a suspicious web of connections. He blames the neo—cons for our problems with Iraq—again, ignoring the Democratic support for giving President Bush the authority to topple Hussein, which had been a stated government policy during the Clinton years.

Fukuyama's new magazine, The American Interest, has a vague Pat Buchannan—ish sound to it, and Zbigniew Brzezinskiаon board does little toаcounter that impression.
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I suppose we would not have any of these problems if Fukuyama's widely publicized prediciton of a world of capitalist liberal democracies had come to fruition. He was wrong then and wrong now.

Ed Laskyа 8 31 05а