It's Not Turning Out PNAC's Way So Far

by Steve Soto

In a Page One in Monday’s Post, Robin Wright starts off with the dagger:

When the Bush administration decided to invade Iraq two years ago, it envisioned a quick handover to handpicked allies in a secular government that would be the antithesis of Iran's theocracy -- potentially even a foil to Tehran's regional ambitions.

But, in one of the greatest ironies of the U.S. intervention, Iraqis instead went to the polls and elected a government with a strong religious base -- and very close ties to the Islamic republic next door. It is the last thing the administration expected from its costly Iraq policy -- $300 billion and counting, U.S. and regional analysts say.

Sure, it is not likely that Iraq under al-Sistani’s guidance will turn into a clone of Iran, nor is it likely that Allawi will disappear from the scene, no longer to be a player. But as Wright says, all of the PNAC assumptions have proven wrong so far, and over 1400 Americans have paid the ultimate price for those miscalculations.