WASHINGTON — The way I heard Condoleezza Rice tell it in a meeting I attended here recently, the world would be a lot more peaceful if everyone would only act decently. In Latin America, for instance, "We don't care what side of the spectrum you come from, left or right; all that we care is that you govern democratically, that you care about free trade, that you have open economies and that you play by those rules."

But, of course, a lot of people in power don't want to do that.

Hugo Chavez has a lot of oil money in Venezuela, so he uses it to preserve his own power while painting the United States as a threat. As the secretary of state notes with dry understatement, "There seems to be an effort by the Venezuelan government to make sure that we have bad relations and that's unfortunate."

And, on the other side of the world, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatens to wipe Israel off the map while deliberately trying to provoke the United States by pursuing nuclear weapons. Because of the neighborhood in which he lives, he has quickly risen to the top of the ever-evolving axis of evil. But it's getting crowded at the top.

Like wannabe bullies on a street corner, these international thugs are motivated less by any real hatreds and more by ways to preserve and consolidate their own power. Ahmadinejad, too, is benefiting from high oil prices. But he is no Saddam Hussein. He doesn't even control his country's foreign policies. He is trying to remain popular and strong in a complicated political system.

It would behoove Americans to understand those complications, especially as the diplomatic dance heats up.

I recently returned from a two-day briefing at the State Department where, along with about 20 other editorial writers, I was able to listen to and ask questions of Rice and many other officials, including U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton. It was my fourth such trip, dating back to the days when Madeleine Albright was secretary of state and Osama bin Laden was an obscure terrorist most Americans couldn't quite place.

In retrospect, those days seem so much simpler. Even the early days after 9/11 were less complicated, although our arrival at the State Department that year came only weeks after anthrax had been discovered in the building's mail room. In those days, the enemy seemed just as clear, but the nation was fresher and more ready to use its military power to deal with the threats.