The unintended consequences were catastrophic and yet the doctrine of neoconservatism survives like a zombie in Washington. Justin Vogt:
As a result of the Iraq fiasco, the direct influence of neoconservatism has clearly waned. But nearly two years into the Obama era, it has become clear that its most lasting legacy is not a set of policies or strategies, but a reframing of debates about American foreign policy around a number of neoconservative assumptions. To a surprising degree, those assumptions among them, that the current threats facing the US are unprecedented; that, in a time of war, military strategy must guide diplomacy, and not vice versa; and that even modest compromises with opponents would call America’s “credibility” into question continue to dominate the agenda in Washington and the mass media. The last decade has shown, again and again, the failures of this line of thinking and yet it continues to haunt American discourse, a zombie ideology that refuses to die.