Regime change

But some say Iraq has better prospects than countries such as Haiti or Afghanistan. "Iraq is not a poor country. It has the second largest oil reserves in the world," says Walter Russell Mead, a senior fellow at The Council on Foreign Relations in New York. The US Congress will see Iraq as a better investment than, say, Haiti, Bosnia, or Afghanistan, he says. "It has an educated populace, lots of technical skills, and the potential to have good relations with Washington and international financial institutions."

Some scholars argue the US shouldn't be trying to transplant Jeffersonian democracy in Iraq or elsewhere. Grafting might be a better approach.

"First, you have to ask what the basic unit of politics is," says Hulsman at the Heritage Foundation. "In Afghanistan, it's the tribe. You can't have a successful central government without including a tribal role. In Iraq, you have three groups that must be part of any government. If you take the top- down approach - bringing in viceroys from abroad, trying to impose a new government on the masses - that's not going to work. "This should be about stability first," says Hulsman. "If we aim lower, we can hit the target."

While far from the only country that intervenes in other countries' affairs, the US has a long history of seeking to change unfriendly governments abroad. Here is a selection of major US interventions - direct and indirect - since World War II.

Iranian President Mohammad Mossadegh is ousted by a coup organized and directed by the CIA with help from British Intelli- gence. He's tried in a military court and sentenced to death, a sentence later commuted to three years in jail and lifetime house arrest. The US-friendly shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, is returned to power and rules until Islamic fundamentalists drive him into exile in 1979.

A CIA-organized coup topples the nationalist reformist government of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz in favor of a military government that suppresses opposition until the return of democracy in 1986. Civil war effectively continues until 1996.

African nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba, elected in June 1960 as the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is assassinated following a US/Belgian-organized coup designed to remove the Soviet-backed government. Succession by Mobutu Sese Seko ushers in 32 years of dictatorial and corrupt rule.

The US-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs fails. The US earlier broke off relations with Cuba after Fidel Castro took power and nationalized along Soviet lines. Cuba declared itself Marxist-Leninist, and the US responded by instituting an economic and political blockade more or less in place to this day. Castro remains in power.

US military forces invade the Dominican Republic after a coup returns to power ousted president Juan Bosch. Fearful of another Cuba-style Communist takeover, the US supports Joaquin Balaguer who is elected president and serves intermittent terms until 1996.

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