Fault Lines

American forces have been sent into Iraq to find something very valuable. But it's not nuclear or biological weapons _ the most valuable thing they have to find is US credibility.

It doesn't take too much thinking to realize how much US credibility has deteriorated. America has essentially just lost a worldwide popularity contest to Saddam Hussein, who isn't the best-respected guy in the world.

No one believes what we say. Most politicians and citizens in other countries assume that we have evil motives for invading Iraq. They believe that we are going to take oil fields and revenues for our own coffers. They believe that we will use Iraq as a foothold with which to conquer the rest of the Middle East, or that we simply intend to punish Muslims everywhere (even though Saddam runs one of the more secular regimes in the region). Finally, they believe that we share Israel's Zionist dream.

Most people seem to assume that America's promise of a freer Iraq is an empty one. Many more Arabs think that the Middle East will be less democratic, rather than more democratic, after the invasion. Think about that. Arabs would rather have Saddam Hussein than America as a neighbor.

Your first reaction may be that this is ridiculous, Arabs are obviously misinformed. And that is part of the story. The Middle East isn't known for its freedom of press. But even in Europe, no one trusts us. And this is worrying.

Some of the blame lies with America as well. We have been uncommitted to communication and coordination with our allies. We have made largely unsupportable claims about links between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Our claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction are based on circumstantial evidence. They are plausible, but only as good as our word.

This column has argued that democratic reform is not the right reason to invade Iraq. But the Bush administration has made that promise. Increasingly since the war has started, Bush officials stress that the purpose of the mission is to "liberate Iraq." The mission has been named "Iraqi Freedom."

We must make good on our word. What has been promised must be given. We can't afford any more damage to our credibility.

Why does credibility matter? Our military might more than counters any grumblings in the Middle East or Europe. Can't we just force our demands on the world?

In the short term it's not such a bad plan. If we wanted to force South Korea to let us use US bases there to attack North Korea, we could probably do it. But somewhere down the line, we will need someone else's help.

We might have been able to get our second resolution through the UN Security Council, for instance, if we had been more willing to cooperate with Europe and Japan over the environmental agreements made at Kyoto.

But even past needing others to help us, we don't want others to hurt us. As we have discovered, it takes more than military and intelligence to keep others from hurting us. Even as we "liberate" Iraq, we are helping countries around the world suppress anti-American sentiment. The citizens of these countries see us as backers of their illegitimate regimes. Discontent is a powerful weapon of mass destruction.

Perhaps more importantly, others need us to help them. And we can't do that without mutual trust. Other countries should want to have America as a neighbor. We have to prove that by building a stable, prosperous Iraq.

This will be no easy task. Iraq is a desert. As I write this huge sandstorms are hindering the progress of American troops. Think about how difficult it would be to start a business, or a government, in such a situation. It's also difficult to win a population's genuine support after bombing them for weeks. Don't be fooled by video of Iraqis greeting American troops in southern Iraq. Most people are nice to armed troops in tanks.

The presence of oil probably only makes the situation worse. With the exception of the US and maybe Russia and Mexico, I can't think of any state of significant size that has been helped by oil. Countries like Nigeria, Iran, and Venezuela have been crippled and destabilized by it.

But this country has completed difficult tasks before. President Bush seems to understand this. He has warned the American people that sacrifices will need to be made, and that American troops may be in Iraq for quite a while.

We can only hope that he intends to make good on his word, which is our word as well. This may determine for years to come whether other countries look to us as benevolent superpower or a bullying empire, a leader or a dictator, an honest broker or a liar whose words are only written in sand.