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For anyone who thought that stark international aggression was a thing of the past, the last week must have come as a startling wake-up call. After clashes in the Georgian region of South Ossetia, Russia invaded its neighbor, launching attacks that threaten its very existence. Some Americans may wonder why events in this part of the world are any concern of ours. After all, Georgia is a small, remote and obscure place. But history is often made in remote, obscure places.

TORONTO -- No wonder George W. Bush isn't looking as sprightly as he did when he landed aboard the USS Lincoln five years ago. Then it was all "Mission Accomplished," as the banner strung across the flat-top behind him proclaimed. After just a few weeks of warfare, the Taliban had evaporated in Afghanistan and Saddam's regime had collapsed in Iraq. In 2003, Mr. Bush could have retired from the field as victor, but he wanted to bring democracy to the region and stayed. Now he will probably have to retire a loser. Five years ago, at the high noon of...

In October 2000, presidential candidate George W. Bush famously derided the concept of nation building and the suggestion that the U.S. military should take the lead in building up failed states. "Maybe I'm missing something here," Mr. Bush said in a debate with Democratic rival Al Gore. "I mean, are we going to have some kind of nation-building corps from America? Absolutely not." Almost eight years later, U.S. interagency "provincial reconstruction teams" are trying to rebuild the economy and government in Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. Army's just-revised field manual puts military post-conflict "stability operations" on a par with fighting...

JB: Mr. Giuliani said: “We need a hybrid army, we need to look at nation-building as part of what we have to teach our military.” Nation-building? Do you agree with that? FT: Well I wouldn’t call it nation-building... You don’t build other nations. Sometimes if the ingredients are there you can assist other nations in doing some good things. JB: Well that gets to the heart of the difference between some of us conservatives and the neo-cons... Can you define for us, who really is the enemy? ...FT: The enemy is radical Islamic fundamentalism. Iraq is a part of a...

Anti-war presidential candidate Ron Paul says his campaign is about "restoring the vanishing American dream." And he is criticizing what he calls "the cartel controlling the banking and monetary system" in the United States. Fresh off his third-quarter fundraising surprise of $5 million, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul says the libertarian "revolution" he has started is growing across America. Paul told conservative activists at the "Defending the American Dream Summit" in Washington, DC, that the conference would be more aptly called the "Defending the Vanishing American Dream Summit." The Texas congressman said his Republican rivals often talk about a "flat...

President Bush has endorsed General David Petraeus's recommendation to begin withdrawing 30,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by next summer. Yet the drawdown would only restore troop levels to where they were before the surge began in January 2007. In the final months of 2006, debate in Washington centered on how fast a reduction from pre-surge levels could occur. The Iraq Study Group recommended that approximately half of the 130,000 troops then in Iraq be withdrawn by early 2008. In marked contrast to that and similar proposals, President Bush is now endorsing a step that would mean a return to the...

Rudy Giuliani gave the commencement speech at the Citadel on Saturday and sketched out a proposal for a permanent nation-building apparatus. He whipped it out again at a Heritage Foundation dinner last night near the end of one of the better speeches I've heard from him in this campaign. Let's go to the tape: Maybe we have to start thinking about some kind of hybrid organization of our military and our civilian agencies of the government. There's a lot here that the Justice Department can bring to bear in places like Iraq and if we have to do another Iraq...

Page One article in today's Wall Street Journal on how the US Army is learning to swim like fish among the people in rural Afghanistan (sub req): A year ago, U.S. commanders here would have been reluctant to insert a small force of infantrymen into a remote village. But, along the Pech River and tributaries such as the Waygal, one 750-man U.S. Army battalion is trying a risky, grueling way to isolate the insurgents and win the support of the villagers. Instead of operating out of safe rear bases and commuting to the war, for the past year the soldiers...

Earlier this month, Jonah Goldberg declared, “The truth is that failed states are a direct threat to American and global security.� With respect to nation building, Goldberg looked back to the debates in the 2000 presidential election and concluded that “Gore was right and Bush was wrong, though neither quite appreciated why.� He concluded by advocating that the United States attempt to create a “League of Democracies, perhaps with NATO as its military wing and a souped-up version of the Peace Corps as its political wing, to shrug off charges of imperialism and to start doing windows.� That packs a...

Bush opens Iraq strategy overhaul by Olivier Knox 1 hour, 40 minutes ago CAMP DAVID, United States (AFP) - US President George W. Bush said talk of a US withdrawal from Iraq was premature but placed new leaders in Baghdad squarely in charge of ultimately pacifying their country. ...snip... "The best way to win this war against an insurgency is to stand up a unity government which is capable of defending itself but also providing tangible benefits to the people," he said at the Camp David retreat in Maryland. ...snip... Bush also urged Iraq's neighbors and the international community to...

Perhaps the key to nation-building is not to "build" a nation at all, but allow it to emerge spontaneously from vital institutions. But can institutions be transplanted? With the formation of the new Iraqi government, it's a good time to take stock -- not just of the current situation, but of the very idea of nation building. Many people who read this publication are familiar with the concept known as spontaneous order. The economist Friedrich Hayek pointed out it's the kind of economic and social order that emerges without central planning. Indeed, such order cannot be planned because it is...

Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground by Robert D. Kaplan Random House. 421 pp. $27.95 Reviewed by Gabriel Schoenfeld Is America an empire, and, if so, is that a good or a bad thing, either for the U.S. or for the world? This question has been kicked around in recent years by polemicists from Noam Chomsky on the far fringe Left to Patrick Buchanan on the rabid Right and, more reflectively, by numerous scholars and intellectuals nearer the center. As the title of his new book suggests, Robert D. Kaplan is among those who believe America is indeed...

Amid the chaos in Iraq, one company of U.S. Special Forces achieved what others have not: a functioning democracy. How? By relying on common sense, the trust of Iraqis, and recollections from Political Science 101. Now, their commander reveals the gritty reality about nation-building in Iraq, from the ground up. As our long column of tan trucks rode down Iraq’s Business Highway 10 at 6 o’clock in the morning on April 9, 2003, I focused on my instincts and battle training, keeping an open mind and preparing for whatever lay ahead. After three weeks of intense firefights, the Fedayeen Saddam...

A survey released last week by the Pew Hispanic Center found more than four in 10 Mexicans are willing to leave their country to live in the US. One in five would risk a dangerous, illegal border crossing. Most surprising, one in three college graduates wants to flee. Before Washington takes up immigration reform this fall, it needs to take a hard look at Mexico's disillusionment. Already, one in eight adults born in Mexico now lives in the US. And the Mexican economy is kept afloat partially by an estimated $16 billion sent back by immigrants to relatives. Such numbers...

Framers of Iraq's constitution will designate Islam as the main source of legislation — a departure from the model set down by U.S. authorities during the occupation — according to a draft published Tuesday. The draft states no law will be approved that contradicts "the rules of Islam" — a requirement that could affect women's rights and set Iraq on a course far different from the one envisioned when U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein. "Islam is the official religion of the state and is the main source of legislation," reads the draft published in the government...

GHAZNI, ARGHANISTAN--The line of army humvees stood motionless, engines running, waiting for the order to roll forward. Behind the convoy, concrete barriers and loops of concertina wire marked the edge of a U.S. firebase--a collection of plywood shacks, canvas tents, and shipping containers clustered around a long rectangular building that was once a Taliban madrassa. Ahead, a faint path of crushed snow snaked its way to the asphalt of the ring road--90 miles to Kabul on the right, 215 miles to Kandahar on the left, and a vast expanse of ice in every other direction. Welcome to Ghazni, Afghanistan's eighth...

Democracy for Everyone? High-violence societies may not be ready for representative government. by James L. Payne Do we know what it takes to implant democracy in a foreign land? For over a century now, the United States has been sending troops into troubled countries and trying to establish free and stable governments. While the results have not always been disappointing, the track record overall is not good. The results of our first effort, the 1898 intervention in Cuba, are typical. Following the Spanish-American War, the U.S. administered Cuba for four years, turning power over to an elected Cuban president in...

January 13, 2005 THE ELECTORATE Many Iraqis to Cast Votes in U.S. By STEVEN R. WEISMAN WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 - Bush administration officials said Wednesday that an estimated 240,000 people living in the United States will be eligible to cast ballots in the coming election in Iraq, by voting in five American cities later this month. Citing figures compiled by the International Organization for Migration, an independent body that works closely with the United Nations, administration officials said that perhaps a million Iraqis over the age of 18 living in a total of 14 countries outside Iraq will be able...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. In the Baghdad night, awakened by the rumble of car bombs and the thump-thump of attack helicopters, Peter Smallwood lies in a sandbagged trailer counting his trees. In his mind's forest, the University of Richmond ecologist zigzags through a dark maze of Appalachian hardwoods until he finds specific specimens, unmarked among thousands. His favorite tree back home in Virginia is a majestic white oak that sprouted before Thomas Jefferson was president. Somehow it escaped the logger's blade. Now it soars 100 feet into the sky; one slice off its thick, scaly...

<p>IMAGES of the Vietnam War seem to be flooding into our lives lately. Footage of a young naval Lt. John Kerry, in fatigues, carrying an M-16, patrolling the Mekong Delta. President Bush, in an eerie echo of a previous president from Texas, vowing never to retreat in the face of aggression. Yet sitting recently in the Cafe Au Lac on a tree-lined street in Hanoi's old quarter, opposite the elegantly restored French- era Hotel Metropole, it was hard to remember why we fought that war.</p>

Paul Bremer, the American head of Iraq's interim administration, has made his farewell. Two days earlier than was expected, he has left the country; Iyad Allawi becomes Prime Minister and Iraq regains its sovereignty. Up to a point. More than 100,000 foreign troops will remain on its soil to battle with the forces of disorder, and the Iraqi treasury will depend on funds voted for by the American Congress to finance the work of reconstruction following last year's war, several wars before that and decades of maladministration by Saddam Hussein. The anti-war coalition, which now includes the whole of the...

Madam Secretary: A Memoir, by Madeleine Albright with Bill Woodward, New York: Miramax Books, 562 pages The Bubble of American Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of American Power, by George Soros, New York: Public Affairs, 207 pages Winning Modern Wars: Iraq, Terrorism, and the American Empire, by Wesley K. Clark, New York: Public Affairs, 218 pages Of all the historical precedents that paved the way for President George W. Bush’s war against Iraq, the most directly relevant was Bill Clinton’s 1999 bombing of the rump Yugoslavia. Like Gulf War II, the 78-day NATO air campaign in Kosovo was waged without the...

Chinese workers are flowing into Sudan for what is claimed to be the biggest international project secured by contractors from China. Growing familiarity with conditions in Sudan and more modest expectations for pay and profit seem to have been influential in the Chinese winning the $650-million civil contract for the Nile River's Merowe Dam, over 300 kilometers downstream of Khartoum. Since winning the contract last June from the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources, the CCMD Joint Venture has completed first stage river diversion. And it has begun excavation for the concrete section of the dam that will contain the...

<p>Exactly 10 years ago the world stood by as a genocidal rampage by ethnic Hutus against ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda claimed as many as 800,000 lives. Now something similar may be unfolding in western Sudan, a region even more remote from the world's gaze. Will humanity bestir itself to act, or will history repeat itself?</p>

Seventeen Kosovars have been killed in the worst outbreak of ethnic violence in that province since NATO forces arrived in 1999, NATO officials said. A company of U.S. soldiers now assigned to the stabilization force in Bosnia is moving to Kosovo to beef up NATO forces in the area. Another two companies are standing by, said a NATO spokesman. Six people were killed in Mitrovica, three in Lipljan, three in Caglavica, two in Urosevac, one in Pec, one in Gnjilane and one in the Kosovar capital of Pristina. The rioting reportedly began in Mitrovica, when ethnic Albanians gathered to protest...

Norwegian soldiers serving with NATO peacekeeping forces in Kosovo were among those injured in one of the bloodiest days of unrest since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999. Twenty Norwegians were hurt in rioting and violence that left at least 10 dead and hundreds injured. Fighting broke out in every major city in the province between Serbs and Albanians. Ethnic Albanians blamed Serbs for the drownings of two children, and set Serb homes, churches and cars on fire. Norwegian soldiers took part in the fighting Wednesday night. Officer Nils Hanheide told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that one local man...

Running the Planet: Not just a job, but an (endless) adventure Many potential new wars are in play among the neoimperialist foreign policy glitterati, still flying high after the Iraq invasion. It wasn't an obvious and immediate national or international tragedy—after all, the world didn't end, did it? No WMDs were unleashed on our troops or American cities. Because, well, there weren't any, even though the danger (but not, mind you, the "imminent" danger!) they posed was the major excuse for the war in the first place. But, hey, look what it did to Qaddafi, the essential post hoc justification...

BAGHDAD - The creation of a new Iraqi military that will defend, not oppress, Iraqi citizens is under way. Many young men are coming forward to train and become part of what will be a 27 battalion, nine brigade, three division Iraqi Army of 45,000 soldiers, said Lt. Col. Damian Heaney, who was deployed from Fort Huachuca last year. Women eventually will be recruited, too. There also will be a small Iraqi Air Corps of about 1,000 people and a six-boat Navy being called the Iraqi Coastal Force, which will have about 1,000 sailors. The developing Iraqi Army will be...

<p>Here we go again. The Marines should sign an annual contract with United Air Lines to ferry troops to Port-au-Prince and collect the frequent-flier miles.</p> <p>It's difficult to argue with the proposition that the United States has a humanitarian responsibility to stop the killing and man's inhumanity to man, which was long ago raised to an art form in Haiti, but we should be under no illusion that the latest Marine expedition to the miserable island of Hispaniola will accomplish lasting good.</p>

Why Haiti's Such a Mess (And Why Bill Clinton Was So Wrong to Prop Up Aristide) By Michael Radu Mr. Radu is Senior Fellow and Co-Chair, Center on Terrorism and Counterterrorism, at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. Ten years ago, in September 1994, U.S. troops invaded Haiti under the auspices of restoring democracy, human rights and the rule of law. At the time, the Clinton-conceived operation was hailed by leftists as a model of liberal interventionism, as former Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide was restored to power and an oppressive military regime was ousted. There was only one problem...

In rehabilitating a crucial powerplant, Iraqi engineers are enhancing their skills and broadening their experience under the supervision of a U.S.-based contractor while strengthening their country’s generation base. But the Bechtel-led restoration project at Baghdad’s 640-Mw Daura Powerplant also highlights the difficulties Iraqi contractors face on restoration contracts and the dangers they confront in cooperating with the U.S. occupation. In November 2003, San Francisco-based Bechtel awarded Iraq’s United Co. the $1-million subcontract to provide labor to revamp two steam turbines at the four-unit Daura power station on the outskirts of Baghdad. Fawzi Elia, United’s project manager, explains that the company...

BAGHDAD – Capt. Roger Maynulet didn't know that liberating Iraq would involve so many photo ops. Yet here he is in a baroque Arab wedding hall in Baghdad for the Hay Somer neighborhood council Christmas party, and he's just upstaged "Papa Noel." Sitting in the bower where newlyweds usually receive their guests, the burly Maynulet is besieged by excited kids clambering over him while laughing parents snap pictures. In between shots, council members and residents whisper in his ear, pressing ideas for neighborhood improvements but also eager to be seen with the American soldier. This is the occupation the US...

Is the Bush administration having second thoughts about its plan to transfer power to an interim Iraqi government by the end of June? The question is raised by recent remarks made by officials in Washington and Baghdad about possible delays in implementing the plan. The reason cited is a statement last Sunday by Grand Ayatollah Ali Mohammed Sistani, the most prominent religious leader of Iraqi Shiites. His statement came in response to a question put to him by a group of un-named "believers" who wished to know what he thought of the plan to set up an interim government. The...

For Chalmers Johnson, it's only a matter of time before we reap 'The Sorrows of Empire' Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic by Chalmers Johnson Holt, 389 pages, $25 Being right isn't much fun. Chalmers Johnson's previous book, published during the last year of Bill Clinton's presidency, predicted that America's foreign policy poultry was about to boomerang back to the homeland. Johnson opened his influential "Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire" by describing an incident about which you're probably a few seconds from thinking, "Oh yeah – I remember when that happened": the deaths of 20...

Kosovo's terrorists continue to wage war In the midst of conflicts in Southwest Asia and the Mid dle East, I cannot help but wonder: Whatever happened to the Balkans? We Americans spent more than a decade listening to and watching CNN and BBC clips of the war-torn region and the countless war crimes that had taken place at the hands of various ethnic groups. What about Kosovo? A 78-day bombing campaign was undertaken to "liberate Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population" from the hands of "terror-invoking Serbs." Why was there no media follow- up of the accomplishments of peace-loving and newly liberated...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 8 — They were a father and son shopping for a car for the young man, a family ritual as common as any in the United States. It was unfolding on a recent evening here, though, to the cadence of distant gunfire and explosions. Aadel Kadhem, 43, and his 23-year-old son, Mohammed, walked around a pair of black BMW's, opening the doors, staring through the windows. Aadel Kadhem paints automobiles for a living, and his income has risen tenfold since the fall of Saddam Hussein's government, he said, allowing him to squirrel away $3,000 for a car...

Has Bush changed his mind? Or was there no mind to change? By Michael Kinsley November 21, 2003 To be "pro-Bush" now means the opposite of what it did five minutes ago. America's proper role in promoting democracy and freedom in the world was a big issue in the 2000 presidential election. One of the candidates was a Wilsonian idealist, arguing that the prestige and even the military strength of the United States should be used to remake other governments in America's image. The other candidate was contemptuous of this woolly-minded notion, saying US blood and treasure should be spent...

The candidacy of Wesley Clark can be summarized somewhat simply. He may have domestic policy proposals, but no one can seriously argue that they motivated either his entry into the presidential race or his support among Democratic primary voters. His appeal is his military prowess, his successful prosecution of the war in Kosovo, and his furious opposition to the war to topple Saddam, a war he once celebrated and called worthy of victory parades and now describes as a mistake of historic proportions. But the profile of Clark in the current New Yorker takes all this a little further. Let's...

Amazon Review of The Kimchi Matters A Timeless Classic for the Ages, October 22, 2003 Reviewer: Justin Palmer (see more about me) from Chicago, USA Lefkovitz and his co-authors present an extensive but precise discussion of basic truths behind the "globalization hype." The authors use kimchi-the pungent fermented cabbage leaves that are a staple of the Korean diet-as their chief metaphor because it is a local, particular and, to many Americans, peculiar item in a society that is of vital regional and international importance. To turn up one's nose at the local, as in disdaining kimchi or failing to appreciate...

<p>When I left Haiti a few weeks ago, news came of the anonymous but unusually precise execution of a thug named Amiet Metayer, leader of the pro- President Aristide gang called the Cannibal Army. One bullet to the heart, one in each eye.</p>

Belgrade flag flap reveals identity crisis By Matthew Price BBC correspondent in Belgrade C300 has come to the rescue of Serbia and Montenegro's politicians. At last a scientific answer to the political problems countries in the Balkans have faced for years. C300 is a specific shade of blue which apparently keeps both Serbs and Montenegrins happy in the "flag battle" which followed the collapse of Yugoslavia. The colour is a classic compromise - halfway between the Serbian dark blue, and the light blue of Montenegro. The wrangling began when Yugoslavia was abolished in March this year, and changed its name...

A week into his presidential bid, Wesley Clark looks less like the Democrats' solution than another symptom of their basic problem. That problem is that much of the Democratic base still doesn't take national security seriously. Sure, Democrats know that most Americans don't trust the party to keep them safe. But they deny that this distrust has anything to do with prevailing Democratic ideology. The party, they reassure themselves, merely needs a tougher image. And so Democrats keep trying to find new, ever more Rambo-like personas to proclaim essentially the same message. First, there was John Kerry, whose Vietnam heroism...

When it comes to nation building, President Bush is a hypocrite, at least according to most liberals, mainstream journalists and all professional Democrats. The argument goes something like this: Bush opposed "national building" during the presidential campaign. He now supports nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ergo: The "W" in George W. Bush stands for Whypocrite (the "W" is silent, of course).Now, by my lights, Bush needn't be a hypocrite. First of all, the nation building he opposed during the campaign was the sort of stuff Charles Krauthammer has called foreign policy as social work - propping up countries...

Two weeks into Operation Iraqi Freedom, a number of newspapers and many airwaves were filled with prognosticators declaring the war plan a failure. The United States, they said, did not do enough to build international support, did not properly anticipate the level of resistance by Iraqis, and failed to send enough forces to do the job. Then coalition forces took Baghdad in 21 days. Today Gen. Tom Franks's innovative and flexible war plan, which so many dismissed as a failure, is being studied by military historians and taught in war colleges.

Post-World Wars I & II and Iraq: A Fascinating Historical Perspective Two tragic bombings in Baghdad and Najaf last month and the continuing attacks on American soldiers in some parts of Iraq have led many to call for more troops in Iraq or for Americans to withdraw. Cries are heard that we are in a Vietnam-like quagmire. Those inclined to make straight-line extrapolations from the events of a few news cycles should read some history. Margaret Mac- Millan's Paris 1919 shows how the Allied leaders who gathered at the peace conference in Paris were largely clueless about how to reconstruct...

More than a month ago, I laid down a marker in a column that no one could competently report on the ongoing story of the occupation of Iraq without reviewing the closest similar situation in American history, the occupation of Germany. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has mentioned this comparison several times in detail in his press conferences since then. Former Secretary of State Kissinger has mentioned the same in several recent interviews in the national press. But all of the reporters present on all of those occasions have reacted to the subject like deer in headlights. Neither they nor any...

For more than a year, the Democratic mantra on Afghanistan was that President Bush was not doing enough -- not spending enough money, not building the army fast enough, not deploying troops to tame the warlords. The charge was neglect and aversion to nation-building. The result? Afghanistan is "falling back into chaos," said Al Gore last November. One could reasonably argue that slowly building up the Kabul government while maintaining a kind of warlord equilibrium is the best that we can hope for right now. Anything more ambitious -- attempting to revolutionize a pre-industrial economy, radically extend democracy or take...

WASHINGTON -- For more than a year, the Democratic mantra on Afghanistan was that President Bush was not doing enough -- not spending enough money, not building the army fast enough, not deploying troops to tame the warlords. The charge was neglect and aversion to nation-building. The result? Afghanistan is ``falling back into chaos,'' said Al Gore last November. One could reasonably argue that slowly building up the Kabul government while maintaining a kind of warlord equilibrium is the best that we can hope for right now. Anything more ambitious -- attempting to revolutionize a pre-industrial economy, radically extend...

Quagmire in the Sun August 19, 2003 Sometimes our enemies have a point. Realizing this is part of growing up, and some people never make it. When the United States conquered Iraq a few months ago, we were told that the Iraqi people were gratefully welcoming the American troops who had liberated them from Saddam Hussein’s tyranny. “We’re hearing from the grateful ones now,” someone remarked. “We’ll hear from the others later.” We are indeed hearing from the others, as U.S. soldiers and UN personnel are shot and blown up daily. There is precious little sign that the Iraqis are...

Supremacy by Stealth by Robert D. Kaplan It is a cliché these days to observe that the United States now possesses a global empire—different from Britain's and Rome's but an empire nonetheless. It is time to move beyond a statement of the obvious. Our recent effort in Iraq, with its large-scale mobilization of troops and immense concentration of risk, is not indicative of how we will want to act in the future. So how should we operate on a tactical level to manage an unruly world? What are the rules and what are the tools? ..... In the late winter...