Many thanks to the Santa Claus of the New World Order: We have two failed states bordering us with foreigners cluelessly roaming the turf, Al Qaeda and Bin Laden still at large and unaccounted for and a strange and self-defeating alliance between a self-created American " liberator" and brutal Sunni dictators in the region. Bush has the goal of enforcing a specific brand of "freedom and democracy" in Iraq while standing up against an Iran that has the longest resume of democracy in the region.

We've experienced just about every kind of sanction and experimental treaty interpretation imaginable. For trading aspirin, tires and cement, we need to be worried about being hauled downtown to jail by the Washingtonian sheriff.

Against such odds, the local economy in Iran has grown without any foreign debt, rising at a pace comparable to India and China. The private sector is gaining market share. Other politically "obedient" countries borrowed recklessly and capitulated to the IMF. They won the empty promise of being "emerging markets". None has emerged from their mountain of debt.

The world economy has grown because businesses and governments have grown increasingly distant, limiting regulations and political manipulations. Concurrently, immigrants have remitted purchasing power back to their relatives while lobbying for the migration of technology and know-how to their home countries.

But three things, all rooted in political strife, could derail the current benefits of globalization. First and foremost: Xenophobia. The forces that amplify differences among people and religions will prove to be highly destabilizing. For this reason, the EU is a valuable model of compromise, worth duplicating in other parts of the world.

The second issue of concern is the ideological polarization of the world. This snuffs out debate, be it in domestic or international forums. World bodies such as the United Nations lose stature and legitimacy because of this.

The third threat, launched in 2000 and sustained in 2004: George Bush. The election of a man who didn't hold a passport and didn't see the world to the presidency of the United State of America has been disastrous. His repeated, lofty, aimless ideological crusades are truly damaging. It is time to deal with reality and discuss real options rather than itch for confrontation. The highly interconnected world deserves interconnected leaders.