Iraq's Constitutional Deadlock

[saavedra77]

Talks on a proposed Iraqi constitution reached an impasse, Sunday.  Despite last-minute compromises offered at the urging of the Bush Administration, Sunni Arab leaders remain unsatisfied, rejecting provisions on  Iraqi national identity, federalism, the role of religion, and de-Ba'athification.  Unwilling to make further concessions to the former ruling minority, Shi'ite Arab leaders have cut off talks, saying that they will use their lopsided parliamentary majority to approve of the document as-is and forward it to an expected October referendum.*

Sunday's developments seem profoundly discouraging, as even the editors of the National Review have worried that "a Sunni rejection of the charter could tip the country further toward all-out civil war," that U.S. military planning and reconstruction efforts in Iraq are both somewhat lacking, and that the U.S. is "already on the downward slope of the curve when it comes to our influence in Iraq."

While the National Review editors focus their attention on Sunni opposition to the proposed constitution, it should also be noted that Shi'ite theocrat and militant Moqtada al Sadr has made common cause with the Sunnis in rejecting the document--seemingly on nationalist grounds.

*The first paragraph of this post will look familiar to readers of NikkiNewsNet, as this section is largely an X-post from there.  But the links and ensuing paragraphs are new, and seemed more appropriate to Kingdom of the Wicked's political thread ....

Comments

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

Even now the apologists for Bush, et. al are counseling us on the value of a "different sort of democracy" even if it isn't technically a "democracy".

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't comment on it, but it's noteworthy that The National Review seems to be trying to lower our expectations about what democracy and human rights--particularly women's rights--will mean in the new Iraq.

So we fought to establish an Islamic Republic. Yippee. Ki. Yay.