Nation-Building

The New York Times reports that a small team of American geologists and military personnel have discovered vast reserves of precious metals and minerals in Afghanistan , which profoundly transforms the destiny of this battered nation overnight: The previously unknown deposits - including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium - are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe. An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium," a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and Blackberries. (...) The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan's existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as we...

A poll of Arab public opinion in six countries finds that the perception of the Bush foreign policy is that it brings less peace, more terror, and less democracy : In a series of questions, Telhami found a largely negative view of the conflict in Iraq. A strong majority of respondents answered that the war in Iraq has brought less peace (81 percent), more terrorism (78 percent), and less democracy (58 per cent) to the region. In addition, 77 percent of respondents said that Iraqis were worse off as a result of the war. Only a small number of respondents believed that the United States' objective in Iraq was to spread democracy. Rather, a plurality of respondents believed that the United States' primary motivation for the war is its interest in oil, and an important number believed that the war was motivated by a desire to protect Israel and to seek regional dominance. The MENA foreign policy objectives for the next Administration are rather neatly summarized (in the reverse) ab...

Interesting website devoted to liberalizing the middle east: The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) is dedicated to examining how genuine democracies can develop in the Middle East and how America can best support that process. While there are numerous advocacy groups influencing American policy toward the Middle East, few have consistently and credibly called for the U.S. to support genuine, authentic democratic reform in the region. Democracy is both a moral imperative and a fundamental concern for American national security. While President Bush's rhetoric shifted dramatically to support a "forward strategy of freedom," the government's actual policies toward reform remain largely unchanged. This has too often meant turning a blind eye toward the repressive acts of friendly autocrats while using 'democracy' as a weapon to threaten our enemies. Democracy should not be so frequently subordinated to other interests that speak with greater power or contri...