The question needs to be reversed: only a strong state can build a strong military, and not the other way around. Wherever the military has taken over the state, or made itself synonymous with the state’s preservation, both the military and the state have weakened. Protected by the thin veneer of false patriotism, a military regime with civilian authority destroys the very principles that make an armed force viable – accountability being at the top of the list.

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Hugo Chavez's defeat in the referendum is extremely welcome, not because Chavez was defeated but because democracy won. A hint from Indian democracy, where someone in power is defeated virtually every month, given the number of states in the Union and the haywire schedule of elections: it is always the one per cent that makes the decisive difference. It’s that one percent that is beyond the reach of either oil or any well-oiled state machinery. God is on the side of One Percent.