Well, the Symposium has met, and the results of their predictions for 2003 are in.
My favorite? Here it is:
David Frum
I won't impress any NRO readers by predicting that the U.S. will take military action in Iraq in 2003 or that such action will be swiftly successful. So let me try some more audacious ones. We will see none of the threatened consequences of the war ó the price of oil won't spike, the Arab street won't rise, and anti-American sentiment in the Middle East won't be inflamed. Instead, Americans and liberated Iraqis working together will stun the world by bringing the nation's sabotaged oilfields rapidly back into production. By year-end, the price of a barrel of oil will fall below $20 ó good news for the stock market, bad news for the House of Saud. Expect that House to reorient itself in a pro-Western direction with dazzling speed. "Gee it turns out we do have all kinds of interesting intelligence information ó here please help yourselves. Did we call you sons of pigs and apes? We meant generous, forgiving sons of pigs and apes." By summer, though, that "At War" logo is going to have to come off NRO ó because Iranian revolution or no Iranian revolution, from then on, all you are going to hear from the Bush administration will be domestic, domestic, domestic policy.