Iraq Constitution
I agree with everything in this New York Time Opinion.
I don't have a problem with arbitrary deadlines. Sometimes it's required to get something accomplished. But if the deadline is truly arbitrary, there should be the ability to delay it if progress is being made. I think that applies here. Besides, I think the deadline may have been set too early to begin with. We are talking about writing a document that needs to last a long time and can form a stable government in a volatile region. Something like that should take a while to draft. However, this is apparently just a first draft, not the final product. So sticking to the deadline at the expense of a weak document might be acceptable or even desirable.
Federal Government with autonomous regions in Iraq would be a recipe for disaster and would lead to civil war. They should produce a document that only contains things agreed upon so far and continue to make changes later. That's basically what the Framers of our Constitution did. Of course, them failing to resolve the issues of slavery and state's rights did lead to a Civil War. But they were doing something that had never been done before. They had no successful examples to draw from and democracy at the time was considered a form of government doomed to failure. Iraq has plenty of examples to emulate or avoid. It's crucial that Iraq form a stable government. We can't bring our troops home until they do. If they create a government that is on the edge of civil war or too heavily influenced by Americans, we'll never be able to get our troops out of there.
I Never understand why people object to elections by refusing to participate, as the Sunnis did in the Iraq election. That makes no sense whatsoever. It's a way to guarantee your interests will not be represented. I think the Sunnis are realizing that and will participate in the next election. Therefore, no permanent constitution should be formed until a new election can be held.
On another note, Bush is being placed under pressure to withdraw from Iraq. Although I strongly feel we do not belong there, we can't withdraw. We took down a working government for no good reason, so now we have to stick around until a new one is on it's feet. If anything, we should increase our troops there to get the job done. Except I'm not sure if more troops would help much. Not to mention that you have to get these troops from somewhere, something that's not likely to happen until you create some sort of draft. Pretty tough to get volunteers willing to die for a war that a majority of Americans and vast majority of world believes should have never been started and does nothing to improve our security at home.
I don't have a problem with arbitrary deadlines. Sometimes it's required to get something accomplished. But if the deadline is truly arbitrary, there should be the ability to delay it if progress is being made. I think that applies here. Besides, I think the deadline may have been set too early to begin with. We are talking about writing a document that needs to last a long time and can form a stable government in a volatile region. Something like that should take a while to draft. However, this is apparently just a first draft, not the final product. So sticking to the deadline at the expense of a weak document might be acceptable or even desirable.
Federal Government with autonomous regions in Iraq would be a recipe for disaster and would lead to civil war. They should produce a document that only contains things agreed upon so far and continue to make changes later. That's basically what the Framers of our Constitution did. Of course, them failing to resolve the issues of slavery and state's rights did lead to a Civil War. But they were doing something that had never been done before. They had no successful examples to draw from and democracy at the time was considered a form of government doomed to failure. Iraq has plenty of examples to emulate or avoid. It's crucial that Iraq form a stable government. We can't bring our troops home until they do. If they create a government that is on the edge of civil war or too heavily influenced by Americans, we'll never be able to get our troops out of there.
I Never understand why people object to elections by refusing to participate, as the Sunnis did in the Iraq election. That makes no sense whatsoever. It's a way to guarantee your interests will not be represented. I think the Sunnis are realizing that and will participate in the next election. Therefore, no permanent constitution should be formed until a new election can be held.
On another note, Bush is being placed under pressure to withdraw from Iraq. Although I strongly feel we do not belong there, we can't withdraw. We took down a working government for no good reason, so now we have to stick around until a new one is on it's feet. If anything, we should increase our troops there to get the job done. Except I'm not sure if more troops would help much. Not to mention that you have to get these troops from somewhere, something that's not likely to happen until you create some sort of draft. Pretty tough to get volunteers willing to die for a war that a majority of Americans and vast majority of world believes should have never been started and does nothing to improve our security at home.
posted by Chris L from MI at 10:00 AM
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