Time is on our side

Remember when President Bush wanted to keep America out of the business of nation building? Apparently his wife has forgotten, or at least wants to.

In New Hampshire earlier this month to stump for her husband, First Lady Laura Bush remarked to one audience, “Remember, building democracy takes time.”

Mrs. Bush even drew a parallel between the efforts to rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq and America’s own history, reminding her audience that it was nearly a century after our nation’s founding before slavery was abolished and even longer before women were guaranteed the right to vote.

Is that an indication of how long we’ll be in Iraq? Well, the First Lady didn’t say.