Second Place Winner

"I've even begun to look back with fondness on Richard Nixon.
After seven years of Bush he's starting to look like Bismarck
or Chateaubriand.

I think that's what the French find so interesting
about American society, it's so schizophrenic.
We have the Carpenters and then we have John Coltrane."

--Douglas Kennedy, author

_________

A cynical man might miss the baby steps. . .

Reuters recently reported the results of the annual failed states index put out by Foreign Policy magazine and the Carnegie endowment for International Peace:

"Iraq has emerged as the world's second most unstable country, behind Sudan, more than four years after President George W. Bush ordered the U.S. invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, according to a survey released on Monday.

"The 2007 Failed States Index. . . said Iraq suffered a third straight year of deterioration in 2006 with diminished results across a range of social, economic, political and military indicators. Iraq ranked fourth last year.

"Afghanistan, another war-torn country where U.S. and NATO forces are battling a Taliban insurgency nearly six years after a U.S.-led invasion, was in eighth place
(Iraq now ranked second among world's failed states.)

It is interesting to note that the Western view is that "U.S. and NATO forces are battling a Taliban insurgency." Perspective is everything.

Wouldn't it be just as correct to say that elements of Afghan society and the Taliban are fighting to expel an invading army of occupation--which is the key right of any state, failed or successful?

It is further interesting that both Iraq and Afghanistan, after substantial expenditure of U.S. treasure--both life and money--are indisputedly rated as failed states?

"Their experiences show that billions of dollars in development and security aid may be futile unless accompanied by a functioning government, trustworthy leaders, and realistic plans to keep the peace and develop the economy."

"The authors of the index said one of the leading benchmarks for failed state status is the loss of physical control of territory or a monopoly on the legitimate use of force."

Isn't it a wonderful concept that the sign of a successful state is the fact that the government in question has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force? An example, it would seem, of such a success is the USA. This is obviously because our maximum leaders will only use violence in a legitimate manner. Ranger must ask Afghanis and Iraqis the old Reagan question: Are you better off now than you were five years ago? Maybe a tax cut would do both countries a world of good.