Cherny in USA Today

As luck would have it, I've got a super-lengthy draft of a post in the works, so I need to take some time and divide it up somehow. That gives me one more day to shoehorn in some non-Sort thoughts. I'm trying to make the most of this time.

» USA Today: A lesson from Berlin for Baghdad (Andrei Cherny)

Too often during this current occupation, Iraqis have been treated as mere pawns in a geopolitical game between the United States and the Baathists or the jihadists. We have surged our military forces and poured billions into the reconstruction but have made relatively little effort to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis by involving them in a common endeavor.

Instead, we've conveyed the sense that the United States is in Iraq for its own interests and not those of the Iraqis. We fight the terrorists there so we don't fight them here, we say.

That may or may not be so, but America's experience in Germany shows that democracies are built not by the force of arms or a flood of dollars, but by an active demonstration of faith in the common bonds of humanity.

"The Candy Bombers" is just a flat-out great read. Sure, I'm biased as all getout, but I'll put the challenge up for anyone not as amped up over Andire's previous, more wonky book.