"We Americans engage in foreign policy because we have to, not because we want to," writes Condoleezza Rice in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs.

Rice notes there are "few problems" in the world that can be settled without the help of the United States, including the regional tyranny of Saddam Hussein.

"An international order that reflects our values is the best guarantee of our enduring national interest, and America continues to have a unique opportunity to shape this outcome," Rice notes.

She says the U.S. policy of containment, the notion that U.S. foreign policy can deter rival influences through engagement rather than isolation, eroded during the initial conflicts with Saddam, and thus the United States missed a key opportunity in the region to instill peace.

"The United States did not overthrow Saddam to democratize the Middle East. It did so to remove a long-standing threat to international security," she says.

Rice says the United States must use its power to push international democratization "because it is right." She notes that through democracy, nations can fully embrace the opportunity presented by globalization to meet any challenge.

"This story is still being written, and will be for many years to come. Sanctions and weapons inspections, prewar intelligence and diplomacy, troop levels and postwar planning -- these are all important issues that historians will analyze for decades. But the fundamental question that we can ask and debate now is, Was removing Saddam from power the right decision? I continue to believe that it was," she notes.

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