Neocons newly in love with Bush

With the situation out of control in Iraq, and increasingly in Afghanistan, conservatives had finally begun to distance themselves from the neocons in recent months. Until Israel and Lebanon started hostilities. Now it's a second neocon love-fest, with many of their fans openly admitting that in increase in the violence is exactly what they were hoping for-- and exactly what the White House is giving them.

A growing number of moderate Republicans and former Bush administration officials are alarmed by what they call Condoleezza Rice’s “uneven-handed diplomacy” in the Middle East. Critics include Richard Haass, head of policy and planning at the State Department during the first Bush term and Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state.

However, after months of disillusionment, America’s neo-conservatives have fallen in love again with the Bush administration because of its support for Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon. (. . .)

“This is exactly the right strategy, which you could call ‘Don’t just do something, stand there [while Israel continues its military campaign]’,” said David Frum, a former speechwriter to George W. Bush, who helped draft the president’s 2002 ‘Axis of Evil’ address.

“What we are seeing are precisely the same divisions as we saw over Iraq with the neo-conservatives rallying behind Mr Bush and almost everyone else feeling rising panic at the direction of American diplomacy,” said Francis Fukuyama, a former neo-conservative.

Fukuyama was one of the most prominent neoconservatives until he left the fold by announcing that he and his colleagues had gotten Iraq all wrong.