Looking over headline events of late, it is easy to become pessimistic over the course of world affairs. From one end to the other there seems to be problems. Over the past five years I have moved from cautiously optimistic to down-right concerned at times. Here are some of the reasons why I am concerned over the storm clouds that I see gathering.

• Iran — I don’t see much efforts to stop the next Hitler. We killed off one Hitler in Saddam Hussein and that was reason for optimism. I am concerned, however, over the lack of seriousness taken by most nations to the grave dangers posed by a nuclear Iran.
• Russia — The reports I hear is that it’s looking more like the Soviet Union there of late. Putin’s political enemies are mysteriously dying while he appears to be amassing power.
• The Democrats — I don’t see a single leading Democrat among the Presidential contenders who has a backbone strong enough to take on the terrorists in Iraq let alone deal with preventing a nuclear Iran. There is lots of talk but no assurance of any serious action to stop terrorists and emerging threats.
• The Republicans — I don’t see what I would call a truly good national leader in the whole party. There are pockets of strength and some promising individuals but I’m afraid the glaring problems are more evident right now.
• Erosion of Human Rights — There are massive human rights problems in dictatorial parts of the world like Myanmar and Darfur. Other nations like Russia are experiencing a regression into a totalitarian-styled regime. Even many western nations are limiting freedoms in the name of hate-crimes legislation and anti-terrorism laws.
• Energy Policy — It seems that most of the world’s supply of energy is concentrated within political hot spots — dangerous places that are politically unstable and undesirable trading partners. And to make matters worse, most Democrats continue to oppose enhancing our domestic capabilities to produce energy. That’s simply wrong and very short-sighted. It makes us and our economy extremely vulnerable.

So with these things in mind, there is a lot to be concerned about. I offer them as a warning of pending danger given the current direction and trends. However, even though storm clouds are gathering, that does not guarantee a storm is coming. A strong wind of change could sweep through and blow these problems away. It’s also comforting to know that even within a storm there are reasons for hope and places of shelter. It’s also true that most of the time things are not as bad as they appear.

It seems that Americans are very impatient when it comes to anything. Take Iraq for example. We expect the Iraqi people to quickly develop a representative government even thought they have no history of ever experiencing such. Let’s take a few moments and think about this in terms of our own government history.

On July 4, 1776 the American people declared their independence from the British Empire. Our first governing document, the Articles of Confederation was not fully ratified for almost 5 years until March 1, 1781. Like Iraq, we had years of war during this time.

Even after the American War for Independence ended in 1783, the new American government struggled under a weak arrangement that had many flaws. This became very evident by the mid-1780s as more problems arose and the states squabbled and did not sufficiently support the federal government.

In a nutshell, the bulk of these problems were addressed by the Constitutional Convention that produced the United States Constitution. Adopted on September 17, 1787, it was more than a year later on March 4, 1789, that the new federal government began operating.

So with this 12+ year timeline in mind, I suggest that forming good governments takes time and, as in our case, can even experience false starts. Given their unique set of circumstances, I think it is unfair to expect the Iraqi people to do much better than we did in our beginning.

True, they have our proven model and our assistance to guide them on their journey, but it seems they don’t have a wise group of founding fathers to speed up this process. But even while we experienced a better set of circumstances than they have now, we still faced many problems that required compromise, creative solutions and much patience. In spite of monumental effort and foresight, we didn’t get everything exactly right during these formative years — even in our second governing document. However, through the brilliant amendment process built into our Constitution, we have been able to “form a more perfect union” and right many of the initial wrongs (especially slavery). The result has been more than 200 years of liberty, prosperity, and growth.

With this in mind, I suggest we maintain a long-term perspective for Iraq. In my opinion, it is premature for us to expect them to immediately experience the mature fruits of representative government from the seeds we first sowed in early 2003. Good government takes time.

Of course we should push for them to develop a government that is honest, safeguards individual rights, and provides domestic security. It would be wrong to accept anything else. Other areas beyond these basics, however, can be addressed over time. Given the ingenuity of a free people enjoying liberty for the first time, I think the quick pace of positive change that would grow in such an environment would shock many skeptics.