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The Neoconservative Cabal
- Abstract
Over the last months, the term “neoconservative” has been in the air as never before in its 30-year career. Try entering it in Nexis, the electronic database of news stories. Even if you were to restrict the request to stories containing “Iraq” and “Bush,” the search will abort; the number of entries exceeds the program’s capacity. Seven years after Norman Podhoretz, the conductor of the neocon orchestra, pronounced the demise of the movement in these pages,* neoconservatives are seen to be wielding more influence than ever before. For it is they who, notoriously, are alleged to have transformed George W. Bush beyond all recognition. At their hands, the President who as a candidate had envisioned a “humble” America—one that would reduce foreign deployments and avoid nation building—became a warrior chieftain who has already toppled two foreign governments and has laid down an ultimatum to others warning of a similar fate.
About the Author
Joshua Muravchik, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is working on a book about Arab and Muslim democrats.




