And what about Iraq?

It is hard to be an American these days and not think about Iraq - every day. Not to talk about it too much with family, friends and co-workers (it is too depressing) but to think about it. On the evening news in our living room - Senator John Warner breaks ranks with President Bush; a family's second son dies in combat - will the third son who is home on leave go back to his unit or claim exemption under the policy that no family need risk more than one son in combat at once; a National Intelligence Estimate doesn't estimate the capacity of the Maliki administration in Baghdad very highly at all.

So, what about Iraq from a Caux Round Table point of view?

I would start any such analysis with our ethical Principles for Government - our suggested basis for justice and civil peace in all nations.

Our fundamental principle is that public office is a public trust.

Good government is about trust - having the trust of the people for discretionary decisions; trusting the people; holding power as a trust - not for personal, ideological, sectarian, special interest reasons - but to serve those who depend on government for weal or woe, giving them security and opportunity.

Iraq today just doesn't have much trust; its supposed national government is not a public trust for most of the people. Some 2 million Iraqis who value stable, just civil society have fled the violence and sectarian killings. Those who remain don't evince much capacity to trust other Iraqis.

So from the CRT perspective, Iraq doesn't have in place the first principle of good government. Starting from that point and trying to get somewhere closer to having the writ of effective good government run throughout the country seems rather hard to do.

Steve Young