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February 2, 2005
This is a world in which the US cop on the international beat creates conflict:
Heng Kim Song, Editorial Cartoons, Lianhe Zaobao, Singapore.
This is a world order imposed by US power that aims to remake the world in the image of the free society in the US: a combination of law, liberal freedoms, competitive private enterprise and regular, contested elections with universal suffrage.
It is a world order in which Saddam Hussein's Iraq did not represent a substantive existent threat, but the US deposed Saddam and occupied the country anyway.
Iran and North Korea are now marked for regime change. Iran is seen as a regional threat that needs to be contained, destabilized, and rolled back as part of the strategy to permanently transform the regional balance of power in favour of Israel. So is Syria. Is the US exit strategy from Baghdad through Damascus?
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I don't think the U.S. will be brave enough (or perhaps stupid enough) to militarily force a regime change in North Korea in the near future, partially because of North Korea's mooted nuclear capabilities.
Iran is a much more likely target, although while Iraq continues to froth and bubble I'm not sure that the U.S. would really want to get seriously involved in Iran either.