Today is the beginning of CIRCLE‘s

annual Advisory Board meeting, when we present our year’s work for review.

Meanwhile, I recommend this long but excellent radio

program about neighborhood councils in Baghdad.

(Thanks to Archon Fung for spreading

the word about it.) At least once a week, I read an article about Americans

and/or Iraqis who are improvising public services or creating democratic

forums in Iraq. Even though the Army is a hierarchical and bureaucratic

organization with a partly violent purpose, many of our soldiers seem

to have a great capacity for improvisation and diplomacy and a deep

understanding of liberal democratic ideals. There are plenty of stories

about poor planning at the highest levels of our government (and in

the Iraqi Governing Council), and about the inadequate training of the

occupation forces; but these stories don’t detract from the work that’s

being done by at least some of our rank-and-file servicemen and women.

There is a danger that this work will go unappreciated and unstudied.

Most experts on democracy are so angry about Bush and the war that they

aren’t alert to the grassroots public work that is going on over there.

And most of the leading proponents of the invasion are hawks who are

glad we blew Saddam out of Baghdad, but they don’t see the nuances,

complexities, and challenges of democratic reconstruction.

On Veterans’ Day, I think we should celebrate American

soldiers as nation-builders, because the skills that matter most in

Baghdad today are also needed back home.