In a surprising, indeed shocking, yet reassuring interview in Sydney today, Frances Fukuyama , one of the prominent group of neo-cons who sent an open-letter urging regime-change in Iraq, said that he believes the invasion of Iraq was a mistake, and is highly critical of the Bush administration. Neo-cons staunchly believe that Democracy can, and should, be imposed (militarily if necessary), on key countries, such as Iraq. But after the war was completely and tragically bungled by the neo-cons (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, etc.), Fukuyama changed his mind.

Rafael Blair, reviewed Fukuyama's 2006 book,  After the Neocons, for The Observer. Blair says that Fukuyama, "a political economist and pillar of the conservative American intellectual establishment, disavows the Bush administration and all its works. For practising neocons this is a big disappointment. Imagine Karl Marx returning from the grave in 1922 to suggest that Lenin had rather missed the point of what he had been trying to say". Well said!! 

According to another reviewer, "Fukuyama now expresses qualms about the killing of ‘tens of thousands’ of innocent Iraqis who had done nothing to harm America or its inhabitants: ‘These casualties in a country we were seeking to help represent an enormous human cost.’ Such guarded words of regret will strike most readers as welcome and overdue. To unrepentant apologists of the war, by contrast, they have the feel of apostasy and betrayal.

Fukuyama is a deeply analytical intellectual, and IS still a conservative Republican - many would say that's a contradiction in terms, but listening to him, I realized that there might actually be conservatives with noble, even humanitarian ideals. Of course, its equally telling that the rare Republican who IS analytical and humanitarian, has disavowed the Bush administration, the Iraq war, and his former neo-con pals.

Most shocking of all in his interview, Fukuyama says that he voted for Obama! He believes that both McCain and Clinton belong to a political mind-set that is too focused on the use of military solutions, but that Obama has the necessary mind-set to use diplomacy to better manage American foreign policy. 

If a died-in-the-wool neo-con like Fukuyama is backing Obama, the Republicans really ARE in trouble in 2008. I hate to get my hopes up, but perhaps America just might be about to enter a new "age of reason", with some controls over corporate excess, a healthcare system that is available to everyone regardless of their means, a responsible environmental policy, some controls over lobbyists, and most importantly: a new emphasis on diplomacy over military force.