The problem ("the" problem, as if it's the only one) with people is that they are morons. They say this and that and make all manner of outrageous claims, yet they do not understand the necessity of supporting any of those claims with evidence. It is not, I'm afraid, enough to state your case; just because you say it does not make it so. To wit, the United States and nation-building. In the 2000 presidential race, I was horrified when then-Governor Bush said he did not believe it was the duty of the U.S. to engage in global nation-building. Happily, it appears that the president has learned the folly of his former belief (to paraphrase both Howard Cosell and Mitch Albom, "Keep your eyes open long enough and you might change your mind").

That which has raised my ire: the assertion that after we have toppled Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, the United States will not engage in the kind of nation-building necessary to make Iraq a strong, self-sustaining country. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the "Coalition of the Willing" are, as I type, dismantling the regime of the Ba'th Party through a massive coordinated attack by land, sea, and air forces. Regime change through invasion, not CIA machinations; thus, I would submit, this action more closely resembles the destructions of the Nazi regime in Germany and the Bushido cult in Japan, and the repulsion of the North Korean invasion of the South, than it does the secret overthrow of Arbenz in Guatamala or the installation of Pinochet in Chile. If you disagree, bring forth your evidence.

Also, life in post-Taliban Afghanistan is far from perfect, but it is a damned sight better than it was under the Taliban. For those who believe we should be reforming Afghan life overnight, I would submit to you that a) in doing so we would be engaging in the sort of imperialism generally deemed immoral since the end of the Second World War and b) we should first consult the Soviet Union to see how well its attempt to do just that worked in the 1980s. The Afghans are a proud, stubborn people. Try to force anything down their throats and they will very likely slit yours.