» The Neocons Make a Comeback

By Dialog at 9:04 PM

Bret Stephens: Neocons are back because Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il and Vladimir Putin never went away.

The other day I was asked by a writer for a mainstream French newspaper to say something about the "return" of the neoconservatives. His thesis seemed to be that the shambles of Barack Obama's foreign policy had, after only nine months, made what was thought to be the most discredited wing of an ostensibly brain-dead conservative movement relevant again. And France - no longer straining at the sight of Michelle Obama shopping in Paris's 6th arrondissement - is taking notice. My answer was that the neocons are back because Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il and Vladimir Putin never went away. A star may have shone in the east the day Barack Obama became president. But these three kings, at least, have yet to proffer the usual gifts of gold and incense and myrrh.