[browardchad]

Regarding the imposition of democratic freedom in Iraq, which does not have any such tradition, I would like to point out that we were successful in transforming Japan, which also had an extremely different tradition.

I'm not sure that Will is so much preoccupied with "tranforming" Iraq, as he is with the effect of our promoting the notion that nations can be "democratized" by fiat. As I read it, Will thinks this plays into, or is even motivated by, the current assault on the concept of the nation-state (self-government) by the (false) promotion of international law as an alternative to national sovereignty.

[Sam Cree]

That's a great article by Will, especially his points about the nation state vs. international law.

While I share his skepticism concerning our "nation building" in Iraq, I was noting that we were successful doing just this (democratizing by fiat, I guess) in Japan, a country with a culture alien to ours if there ever was one.