"The Iraq War seemed to present the odd spectacle - a veritable reversal of intellectual galaxies - of a conservative American president proclaiming the gospel of liberty, with liberals faling back on a surly belief that liberty can't be spread to Muslim lands" - Fouad Ajami
There is some truth to it, but the Bush administration's soaring rhetoric about Middle Eastern liberalism has been much less than its potential, because of many factors.
Firstly, America is the bastion of world liberalism and democracy, and to best proclaim the 'gospel' as Mr. Ajami describes it, it should at the least safeguard, at best nourish, its own reputation, and the Bush administration's false pretense that it was not looking for a war, then its false justification of it; and the very notion of a unilateral, unprovoked war itself, has not been good for its own reputation, including in my parts of the muslim world.
Secondly, the Bush administration was true to its word, until faced with a domestic political rebuke in 2006, was not interested in nation-building. It was merely interested in having a war and winning a war, and then digging in to its established position. A flailing, violent democratic state that could not keep order, performed well below its economic potential, and which had a huge unnecessary casualty rate, in 2003-2007 at least, didn't do wonders for selling democracy anywhere.
The combination of a poorly justified unilateral attack and the failure to nation-build, which for a long time caused the Iraqi government to be too lack full sovereignty (and it's questionable whether they have today) severely weakened, I think in the minds of many, the appeal of what happened in Iraq, for few would want in their own countries such a democracy established by foreign power in that manner.
Finally the administration has had a poor record of showing any investment in the resolution of other regional issues such as the numerous issues between Israel and its neighbors, and taken an unproductive approach toward Iran. Arguably the invasion of Iraq increased political insecurity in Iran and strengthened the hand of hardliners there.
I think the rhetorical justification and sentiments were correct, but the actions undermined those. The increase in isolationism within liberalism though, is troubling.
