I brought this up a few weeks ago, actually at the end of the first week our troops were moving into Iraq. There were headlines saying we weren't moving rapidly enough, and that this war was going to last longer than we had thought, and that we ought to get with it and get it over with. Actually it took about three weeks, and the rest of the world was stunned at how fast America won that war.
But back here in America what was the media, and many of our people, saying? There was news coverage of chaos and looting in Baghdad, and we had people saying: why don't we have that under control right now? How did we miss? What's wrong with America and our soldiers that they don't have Iraq totally under control? And now somebody mentions it might take five years for Iraq to develop a democracy and get it stabilized, and some politicians and others in the media think that job ought to be done in two years. So the question is being asked: how fast are we going to get this job done and get out of there? We want that job done "right now."
History says things rarely happen "right now." The United States has been a democracy for well over 200 years, and we still have hot debates and slow action. Look at the Georgia government right now. For the first time in 130 years we have a Republican governor and Senate. We still have a Democrat House of Representatives. But we have all sorts of folks, liberal and conservative, who are criticizing the new governor for not changing Georgia government "right now." Let me suggest that the only way a government can be changed completely is to ignore the people and have a total dictator. It seems to me the voters of Georgia said at the last governor's election they did NOT want that. But if we are to have government of the people, by the people, and for the people it is going to take a little time ... and a LOT of patience.
This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/4/179888