Contestants also put themselves forward.

Rudyard Kipling s old Great Game now has new contestants. Instead of an expansionist Russian empire confronting Imperial Britain, it is now a China hungry for land, water, and raw materials that is flexing its muscles, encroaching on Himalayan redoubts and directly challenging India.

Of the four withdrawals, arguably the 1982 1984 American intervention in Lebanon marks the closest parallel to Iraq today. A country torn by sectarian violence beginning in 1975, Lebanon pitted an even more complex array of contestants against each other than Iraq does today.

Wrestlers wash their faces, mouths, and armpits before entering the dohyo (ring), on whose sacred sand neither shoes nor women may tread. Before a match starts, the two contestants raise their hands to show that they are not hiding weapons in the folds of their loincloth like belt.

That is precisely the attitude that I hope to bring to my travels within the United States for The Way to Wellville contest, in which five communities will compete to improve their health. Rick Brush, the competition s CEO, and I have already visited several of the 10 15 communities that we will explore before choosing the five contestants.