My ex-husband (and my daughter's father) is currently in Afghanistan as a personal guard to the President and the Ambassador (they rotate). Building a democracy takes a LONG time and it takes even longer to change the way people think! When people are accustomed to deciding who should be in leadership positions by:

1) who the regime supports
2) who those with money support
3) who those in power support
4) who is the safest to vote for
5) who their Uncle supports
6) who their husband supports
7) who the tribal leader supports
...

they have a very difficult time looking at the different views of any candidates at all. You can tell them over and over again that they should vote for who they think will best lead the country in the direction they want it go but the concept that who they want to be President or in charge may actually BE in charge one day is incomprehensible.

Afghanistan is still to 'young' of a democracy to be a good example. The people of Afghanistan are not accustomed to having any choices in their lives and find it difficult to make decisions. Most meetings are 'wishy washy' at best and will take years for the people to feel comfortable making any decisions that used to be life or death decisions for them.




>Tracy,
>
>>Following that, I have no idea! While democracy is not difficult, it will takes months to organize and coordinate and provide security for elections. Getting people to run, creating political parties, police training locations, training police, government structures, etc will actually take years.
>
>Think a good place to look at is Afeganisthan, and what's going on there. Seems to me their culture is more similar to the Iraq's than the western.
>
>>I am just a citizen at home, so what do I know! Nothing!
>
>Tracy, please, don't be so modest! You are a very inteligent, honest, critic, concerned and engaged woman!
>
>Fernando