Gibberish
The nauseating Leftist Eleanor Clift has proclaimed the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive war to be "moribund, if not dead." I don't know where she's getting that from, but it's obviously gibberish.

It is an article of faith with those on the anti-war Left that Iraq has been a huge disaster for us. But this is a partisan perception unsubstantiated by the facts. What has the President promised in Iraq that he has not accomplished? We invaded the country and seized virtually all of it in a matter of weeks, overthrew the government, captured its tyrannical leader, killed or captured his only plausible successors, began stabilization and rebuilding efforts, and have passed on sovereignty to a government that is largely trusted by its people. Democratic rule has sprung up all across the country at the local levels, especially in the Kurdish north where we are well-liked. The Iraqis have a free press, increasing access to the outside world and its markets, and the help of the greatest military in the history of the world to see things through. Those are the fruits of pre-emption.

But here's what Clift says about the notion that a forcibly liberated Iraq is a catalyst to positive change in the Middle East:

Invading Iraq was supposed to intimidate the mullahs in Iran to curb their nuclear ambition. Instead, the Iranian nuclear program is much further along than we realized, and the mullahs are in a strong position, having just rigged their own election.

How is this relevant to the question of whether the doctrine of pre-emption has done good in the region? The biggest problem with this pessimistic view is that the effect has barely begun to be felt. Does Clift suppose that the IAEA would be in any position at all to make its investigations into Iran's nuclear programs if there weren't the example next door of a coalition willing to take on tyrants over this very issue?

Our work in Iraq must be given time to make its full impact known. We have not, as Bush the Elder and his containment-minded friends once feared, left a power vacuum in Iraq. What we have there now is a government working towards full sovereignty. The anti-war crowd is afraid of that because it means that Bush has succeeded. Therefore, they try to paint the situation as darkly as possible. But don't listen to them. They don't want any part of an America willing to take the war to the terrorists and their collaborators. Instead, they want to sit back and wait for the other boot to drop.

Let it drop on their heads.