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Afghanistan
Afghan Delegates Begin Constitution Talks
2003-12-14
Delegates assembling from every corner of Afghanistan on Saturday faced tough debate in hammering out the first post-Taliban constitution, the bedrock of what Afghans hope will be a better life after years of war. The constitutional loya jirga, or grand council, which opens on Sunday, is a key step in the two-year drive to stabilize the country under an empowered central government, and will lead to landmark national elections planned for June. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Afghanistan’s new charter would be a ``major milestone in its transition to a constitutional, representative government that respects its traditions and protects the welfare of its citizens.’’ The European Union said it hoped the charter would be ``pluralistic and based on universal human rights, including equal rights for men and women.’’
I think most of us hope it won't be too awful...
But the aspirations of ordinary Afghans, among the world’s poorest people, are simpler. ``Look at the ruins of this country,’’ said Bismillah, a 43-year-old shopkeeper in Kabul who goes by only one name. ``Let’s get the constitution approved so the government can get to work.’’
Sensible men. Is he running for office?
It could take 10 days to several weeks for the loya jirga, meeting in a huge tent at a Kabul college campus, to finalize the 160-article draft presented by a constitutional commission in October.
If it's got 160 articles, it's too detailed. They put all sorts of grand ideas and rights into these things, most of which are honored in the breech:

"You have the right to a pony of no fewer than 11 and no more than 14 hands. It will be gray, brown, black or white. Its mane will reach no less than halfway nor more than three quarters of the way to the ground."

That means nothing if there aren't any free ponies to hand out.
While all the delegates have arrived without reported incident after last-minute elections in the provinces, the U.S. military has warned that Taliban militants plan to disrupt the gathering.
Oh, surprise, surprise, surprise!
With Taliban attacks increasing in the countryside, U.S. forces have launched their largest military operation since the fall of the Taliban two years ago - in part to protect the loya jirga. The new Afghan National Army has placed machine-gun posts and tanks near the council site’s perimeter and the city’s 5,500-strong international peacekeeping force is patrolling the nearby hills to prevent rocket attacks.
Let’s hope the Taliban masses all its forces for an attack.
Among the delegates cocooned at the carefully groomed loya jirga site, the strength of the presidency appears the most contentious issue. U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai favors a strong chief executive while opponents have pushed for a prime minister who would share power. Karzai this week said he would not run in next year’s elections if a strong prime minister’s post is created.
"I’ll be prime minister instead, unless the post of Grand Vizir opens up!"
They're allergic to prime ministers after Hek...
Afghans have bitter experience of such an arrangement. During part of the 1992-96 civil war, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, today near the top of a U.S. wanted list for siding with the Taliban, was officially prime minister - even as his forces bombarded the capital under President Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Hek will be noticable by his absence, and hopefully by his funeral.
Afghans appear torn, wanting a government strong enough to rein in powerful warlords but not so strong as to create the makings of a dictator.
That's an adequate goal...
``We do need a strong presidential system, one person that will be in control of everything,’’ said Abdullah Arsala, 30, U.S.-educated Pashtun businessman from Jalalabad who is a loya jirga delegate. But another delegate, 32-year-old Abdul Rehman, an ethnic Tajik, warned: ``If we give all the power to one man he will just do something for himself.’’
Yep, depends on the quality of the people you elect first. Thank goodness we had George Washington.
The man who could have been king...
Posted by:Steve White

#17  Two things that most people don't know about Washington:

A) He had a toweringly passionate nature and a temper that could defrost the Antarctic. The image of him as a square-jawed statue comes primarily from his heroic efforts to keep it in check. He did go medieval on idiots like Charles Lee at Monmouth Court House, and his aides when they proposed setting up a military dictatorship with him at the head after the Continental Congress left the Army in the lurch.

B) Washington was not an especially competent general. He was addicted to complicated tactical plans that the Continental Army wasn't trained to perform, and he had a very poor sense of how to tactically position his troops. (Good examples of this are his first battle at Fort Necessity and at Long Island and Manhattan, where he nearly got cut off by the British Navy) His saving graces were the ability to listen to reason, (he was argued into going after Yorktown rather than New York) and the fact that he was one of the greatest spymasters in espionage history. (Historians only uncovered the last of his spy rings in the 1920's!) Underneath the wooden and plaster-saint image, he was truly a self-made great man, who was well-conscious of his personal shortcomings and adjusted his actions accordingly.
Posted by: Ernest Brown   2003-12-14 5:30:17 PM  

#16  john (#3): Oh. You were talking about writing a constitution, right? Yeah. ok. I thought you were talking about producing a Washington. Yeah, 1789 and they're on their 5th one, not counting three or four intervening abortive monarchies. About right. sbt.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds)   2003-12-14 4:37:45 PM  

#15  R: did you spell Chrysler and Daimler that way for some reason or just excitement?
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds)   2003-12-14 4:30:49 PM  

#14  Chyrisler Corporation,before they sold out to Damlier
Posted by: raptor   2003-12-14 3:39:01 PM  

#13  Dodge/Chrysler
Posted by: Frank G   2003-12-14 3:36:27 PM  

#12  What's MoPar?
Posted by: Lu Baihu   2003-12-14 3:15:54 PM  

#11  Shipman and Glenn not Reynolds

De Gaulle had some of the qualities. Complete disinterest in money: he refunded the state for the power used in his private rooms at Elysee, he didn't accept pay over his Army's pay as a retired colonel. Willingness to relinquish power when he felt he was paralized (1946) or unsupported by the French people (1969) despite being legally able to keep it. Disinterest for medals and honors (he refused them). A strong intent in doing what he thought good for France.

However, such qualities were marred by
a) an enormous pride: at 12 he already believed he would save France and his later carreer shows him all too quick to believe nobody else was fit for the job (in some ways he was not completely wrong given the mediocrity of France's leaders)

b) Unability to forgive offences both personal and political. I think his anti-americanism in the 60s was due in no small way to the many offences and backstabbings wrought by Roosevelt against him ad France. However for a really great man, "le roi de France ne se soucie pas des offenses contre le duc d'Orléans", or in British terms: "the King of England doesn't care about offences against the Prince of Wales". Specially when offences have been perpetrated twenty years earlier by a different administration.

b) His complete unhumanity when his abstract idea of France's grandeur clashed against the lives of people. It goes from his snobbing of the Spanish republicans in teh Resistance who liberated several French cities (but de Gaulle needed French resistants for restoring both of France's international prestige and self esteem) but the worst was his shameful treatment of the harkis (Algerians who had fought against the FLN thugs during the independence war): he was wary of introducing a Muslim minority in France so hze ordered them to meet horrible deaths at the hands of FLN. But tens of thousands of them still reached France thanks to French officers who braved sanctions to save them. However De Gaulle had the harkis parked into something who looked more like concentration camps than evrything else where people who had fought for France in Algeria, Indochina and Cassino were rewarded with 20 years or more of misery and, quite often, seeing their child die from exposure or illness, all while being robbed by the state and the camp bosses.
Posted by: JFM   2003-12-14 2:50:39 PM  

#10  Ship - OT (cont.) I used to hitchhike to the drags - from age 8-13 - they called me the "Pit Brat" cuz so young and always alone. Handed wrenches under for Garlits once, after that Kalitta wouldn't let me near his rail - thought I was a spy, heh. Saw them all when a kid, but never ran later, myself. I love the smell of nitro in the morning...
Posted by: .com   2003-12-14 1:52:38 PM  

#9  King Juan Carlos?
Posted by: James   2003-12-14 1:31:45 PM  

#8  JFM: Core legend says Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus defeated the Aequi badguys, saving a Roman army from extermination, accepted a Triumph, (must've been a TR1 back then)

LOL A very nice touch. Who Drove around the walls of Jerico in his Triumph?

Not that it matters... the Lord God is a MoPar man.. it is noted that he drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden in his Fury.

.com OT used to help with an SCCA B Production (old style) GT350.
Posted by: Shipman   2003-12-14 12:57:38 PM  

#7  Harry Truman returned to his home as well.
Posted by: Super Hose   2003-12-14 12:38:11 PM  

#6  Not to stray to far off the subject but if any Rantburgers have never really studied our revolution and it's battles you'r really missing some great stuff. Accounts of Lexington and Concord, The rescue and fighting retreat of the blokes, Cowpens... just great stuff.

George Washington and our revolution, the hand of God.
Posted by: Lucky   2003-12-14 12:16:34 PM  

#5  john: Lessee. France has produced Charlemagne. Nope. Richelieu. Nope. Louis XIV. Nope. Napoleon. Nope. Napoleon III (the Little.) Nope. de Gaulle. Naah. Who? Jeanne d'Arc maybe?

JFM: Core legend says Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus defeated the Aequi badguys, saving a Roman army from extermination, accepted a Triumph, (must've been a TR1 back then) then returned to his plow. That fits, Washington often compared to him. But he was also about 2500 years backalong. Who between? Who since?

"If Washington does [resign and go back to Mt. Vernon] that, then he is the greatest man on Earth" -- George III, 1783
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds)   2003-12-14 12:02:52 PM  

#4  Most people, including Americans, really don't know Washington well - more the myth and silliness. The man was unique, IMHO. I highly recommend this extremely readable book for a great profile of the man, as well as a very interesting take on the American Revolution:

The First Salute
by Barbara Tuchman

She just passed away - and I'll miss her work. If you're interested in WW-I, her book The Guns of August is also excellent - and a well-deserved Pulitzer Prize winner.
Posted by: .com   2003-12-14 11:42:33 AM  

#3  France seems to get around to it every 50 years or so.
Posted by: john   2003-12-14 10:56:57 AM  

#2  Cyncinatus?
Posted by: JFM   2003-12-14 8:42:17 AM  

#1  Unfortunately the world seems capable of spawning a Washington only once every millenium or two. Who was the last one before him? Since?
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds)   2003-12-14 4:12:19 AM  

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