Podhoretz's critique of the right is polite but forceful. He replies to those who have accused Bush of naivete in promoting democracy in the Middle East. Yes, he acknowledges, elections have brought Hamas to power in the Palestinian areas, gave the Muslim Brotherhood seats in the Egyptian parliament and provided Hezbollah a share of power in Lebanon. And yet, as Fouad Ajami, Middle East Studies professor at Johns Hopkins, has written, "while the ballot is not infallible, it has broken the pact with Arab tyranny." Podhoretz adds that "bad as this option may have been by certain political standards, it was -- and still is -- marked by more than a touch of nobility."
World War IV, as Podhoretz characterizes the fight against Islamofascism (with the Cold War designated as World War III), will require heavy sacrifices and patient resolve. President Bush has demonstrated tremendous resilience. Yet a massive failure of nerve seems to afflict most of the opinion-making elite in America. Considering the level of defeatism rampant in the press, among public intellectuals and among the political leadership, it is perhaps even more amazing that so many young Americans have answered the call and donned the uniform. Podhoretz writes: "In their determination, their courage, and their love of country, they are by all accounts a match, and more than a match, for their forebears of World War II and World War III."
Podhoretz at 75 has not flagged in energy or optimism, and this latest book is a jolt of intellectual electricity for a philosophy (the Bush Doctrine) badly in need of it.