In order to build basic democracy here we'll need lives of two generations - at least forty years.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Democracy is something that you must learn each generation. It has to be taught.
Democracy is not something you put away for ten years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We have to begin to learn to rule ourselves again.
We should never take democracy for granted. Democracy can emerge and develop, but it can also decay.
It takes a long time to build democracy, to build freedom.
Democracy is timelessly human, and timelessness always implies a certain amount of potential youthfulness.
As I understand I took most so-called democratic states about 200 years on average to build their democracies. That is why, when we go to sleep under totalitarian rule and wake up in a democracy, it makes me laugh.
Just the concept of personal freedom within a democracy, for instance, is a relatively young idea - only about 300 years old in this country.
It will take years to bring Iraq the democracy it deserves.
But I think we need to remember that democracy everywhere is by its nature incomplete, a work in progress.
So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy.