Not yet three weeks after American troops seized the heart of Baghdad and toppled the government of Saddam Hussein, Iraq is a country poised agonizingly between its past and its future.

The multinational troops toppled Song's government and captured the launch sites, only to discover that North Korea was building more nuclear warheads at another unknown launch site.

He would be the 26th American - and the third American civilian - reported killed since United States troops toppled the Noriega Government in an attack that began on Dec. 20.

It was the deadliest day in the 11 months since American troops toppled Saddam Hussein's Sunni Muslim-dominated government.

Vietnam and China fought a border war in 1979, after Hanoi's troops invaded Cambodia and toppled the Pol Pot regime.

But they also want the Americans to leave as soon as possible, a cry heard over and over only a week after the American and British troops toppled the Iraqi government.

During the uprising in the Punic mainland, the mercenary troops in Corsica and Sardinia toppled Punic rule and briefly established their own, but were expelled by a native uprising.

American troops seized the heart of Baghdad and toppled Mr. Hussein's government after 26 days of war, after Iraqi forces deserted the defense of the capital en masse.

Then, the naysayers shivered at the thought of going into Afghanistan and were shocked to see people dancing in the streets as American troops easily toppled their oppressors.

Until American troops toppled Saddam Hussein two years ago, political power rested with the Sunni minority, accounting for no more than 15 to 20 percent of the country's 25 million people.