What happens next in Iraq? Does America settle in for the long term to help shape a democratic nation? Or do U.S. forces withdraw as soon as Iraqis can establish a government able to ensure order, provide services and oversee the economy?

Polls suggest the American people would prefer to put up whatever money is needed to help rebuild Iraq, bring the troops home and let the Iraqis get on with it. But some influential policymakers in Washington are more ambitious. They want to make Iraq a model state that promotes democratic reform throughout the region. That commitment to nation-building would require a more intimate U.S. involvement for a much longer time.

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Among the successes were Japan and Germany, two nations that before World War II had thriving economies and didn't have the bitter religious and ethnic rivalries that divide Iraq. And remember, hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops remained in Germany and Japan for years after the war.

U.S. efforts thus far in Afghanistan offer little promise of transforming that war-ravaged nation into a paragon of peace and progress. The prospects look better in Bosnia and Kosovo, and for good reason. As Fareed Zakaria points out in Newsweek magazine, we have 20 times more troops per capita in Kosovo than in Afghanistan.

» Charlotte Observer | 05/29/2003 | What next in Iraq?