Why do people have such unreasonable expectations?

Question

Why do people expect that in just 5 or 6 years we can:

1. Help a country set up a real democracy in an area that has never seen one or had hope for one until their dictator was toppled when it took decades for us to do it ourselves at home.

2. Prepare Iraqi security forces to be a viable organization capable of battling ununiformed terrorists (pretty much the hardest thing for a military to do) with a professional cadre of officers and NCOs who do not focus on tribal and religious loyalty but focus on the law instead, starting from scratch, when it takes us 2-4 years to turn a new military member into an officer (ROTC, service academies, etc) and a similar amount of time to turn a soldier into a sergeant (mind you they need years beyond that to gain real experience). Keep in mind that our soldiers don't have the guy down the street threatening to kill their kids if they do their jobs like Iraqi soldiers do.

Answer 1

Because they are of the McDonald instant service generation. Just because our world is fast moving they expect the rest to be just like it.

Answer 2

Both Iraq & Iran elected "Social Democratic" governments in the early 50's, as did Guatamala. These were unacceptable to the USA so it fell to the CIA to overthrow all 3 and put dictators in power that would do Washington's bidding. The US created the problems in those countries and must now pay the price. Sadly the Guatamalans paid the price with the deaths of over 100,000 of its people between '52&'62 at the hands of the CIA/government backed death squads.If the US would back off and let other countries run their own affairs, there would be far less strife in the world. Every comment I made can be checked out and verified but don't rely on the US media to tell you the truth.

Answer 3

The American people think this because the President and Rumsfeld said it could be done. Also, most Americans would not be so critical if it would appear that progress is being made and Iraq is being stabilized. Instead we see images of bombing and shooting and hear of corruption at the highest levels of the Iraqi government.

BTW, wasn't it Bush who said that America was not into nation building and most of America supported him. As long as the war was about finding terrorists and weapons Saddam shouldn't have, the President had the majority's support. Then he began a campaign of rebuilding Iraq while ignoring other important issues such as Osama bin Laden, education, and health care, which were supposed to be his strong suits. To most Americans, it seems that the President has taken his attention away from the American people and has become obsessed with an issue that is not getting any better. That is why Americans are disenchanted with Iraq.

As for America's independence, we did not have the luxury of having a cash cow support us when we started as a nation. At the time, there were three nations that controlled the seas and trading. They were Spain, England, and France. Seeing as how we just ended a bitter war with England, they were begging for our failure. The Spanish wanted nothing to do with America, since they were concentrating on their problems with their colonies in Central America, and the French did not want to help for fear that the English would retaliate. So basically we dealt with issues ourselves. We set up our military, government, and laws.

Answer 4

You are living in an age of instant everything. No one wants to wait for anything. Fast is the key word today.
One item of note. Nr. one of your list. We can never make Iraq a Democracy. The Islamic religion will not allow it. Democracy should never have been the intent of the invasion. That misnomer alone has doomed the action to fail. Sorry you have to live in such an over-expecting society
Hisemiester

Answer 5

Because the American leader said Mission Accomplished and the American people taught the Iraq's would have reacted like the French after they were deliberated from the Nazis. That never happened only a group was happy and that was because the rest of Iraq hated them and now they are in charge, so why does the democracy in Iraq have to be just like America supposed to be democracy. America was gun ho on going to war with Iraq, but what I find odd is why are we defending Iraq, we never cared about them people before we used them to fight Iran and took their oil and Saddam was America's number one agent in the middle east. When he attracted Kuwait he called America and told them and they said we don't care, America betrayed their Agent Saddam

Answer 6

Because most people have enough sense to understand Iraq is a nation of opposing tribal groups. You can make them slow or stop fighting with brutal force, but when they have the chance they will start up again. Remember, we created our own government, if say Spain had come over and forced it on us we would have never stopped fighting, even if Spain had some very noble and smart ideas.

Answer 7

Because these people with unreasonable expectations never really learned from the lessons of the Vietnam War. Whether we like it or not, the Iraq insurgency and violence will continue for many more years to come. It's not for America to meddle and fix problems for the Iraqis. It's only up to the Iraqis themselves to fix their own problems and turn their country into what they wanted it to be, and not on what America wanted Iraq to be. America's culture, tradition, and politics are totally incompatible with those of the Middle East. And so, shoving these anathemas down through their throats will never succeed at all.

Answer 8

Bush and Cheney said it would be a cake walk, a few months if not weeks. Dick Cheney said it would all be wrapped up in six weeks, and the Iraqis would shower us with candy and flowers. They said it would pay for itself!

We were sold a LEMON.

Answer 9

Primarilly because we have been told by our leaders things like "the insurgency is in their last throes" and "mission accomplished" and that "we would be greeted as liberators" and then democracy would flourish......

We have unreasonable expectations because we have been repeatedly fed unreasonable expectations by our leaders.....

Answer 10

They are just planting the seed and hoping it will grow .