the Canadians; they are bullying the Mexicans; they are condescending to the Russians and ignoring the Chinese, and last but by no means least, they have aroused the infinitely dangerous lunatics of North Korea. And, most remarkable, it has been deliberate. The blueprint is laid out in what's known inside the Washington beltway as the Project for the New American Century (at www.new americancentury.org). There you will find a "statement of principles" signed by a cabal of hard-right hustlers who are now some of the leading Bushies, including Dick Cheney, brother Jeb Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and his sinister, scheming deputy, Paul Wolfowitz. These people despise the United Nations and all its works. They state the "fundamental proposition ... that American leadership is good both for America and for the world". ");document.write(" advertisement "); } } // --&gt; Whether the world likes it or not. CERTAINLY, though, American leadership is good for business. I wrote here a few weeks ago how Dick Cheney had made many, many millions repairing oilfields destroyed in the first Gulf War. This coming conflict should be still more rewarding. Take one Richard Perle, for instance. Barely known in this country, hardly any better known in his own, he is, nonetheless, a great figure in Washington. ABC viewers might have seen him interviewed on Four Corners last Monday. A former deputy defence secretary in the Reagan administration and a foreign policy guru on Bush's election campaign team, the plump, saturnine and inordinately self-satisfied Perle now advises his