from: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0421war-stay21.html

Iraqi democracy may take years, senator says

William C. Mann
Associated Press
Apr. 21, 2003 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - The United States should not expect to create a functioning democracy in Iraq for at least five years, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Sunday.

"The institution-building process in Iraq is a huge endeavor," said Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. "There's not much to work with at this point."

Lugar said the Bush administration started work very late on a system to replace the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, ousted by the war.

The military plan's "tactics and execution have been brilliant," Lugar said on NBC's Meet the Press. Similar preparations should have been made for what was to come afterward, he said.

"I would think, at least, we ought to be thinking of a period of five years of time" to develop democracy, Lugar said. "Now, that may understate it."

Some have mentioned four to five months, he said, which would amount to "trying to do it on the fly, as we have attempted, unfortunately."

Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh agreed that an extended American military presence in Iraq will be necessary. "We're going to have to be there for a while, not permanently, but for a while, because we don't want to win the war and then lose the peace," he told Fox News Sunday.

Bayh said he sees movement. "We'll have to maintain a significant presence here early on until things truly get settled down," said Bayh, D-Ind., a member of the Senate Intelligence and Armed Forces committees. "There's some momentum toward a civil society in Iraq. And then hopefully we can begin to ratchet that back."

Iraq's pro-U.S. opposition leader, Ahmad Chalabi, said a U.S. military presence in Iraq "is a necessity until at least the first democratic election is held. And I think this process should take two years."