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Iraq-Jordan
Iraq on brink of meltdown
2005-08-26
Gloom. Despair. Fairbanks.
The credibility of Iraq's political process was in danger last night as parliament again failed to vote on a draft constitution which a Saddamite Sunni politician said was "fit only for the bin".
In a related development, the credibility of the MSM is in danger because of their alarmist one-sided reporting.
The government had earlier announced plans to bypass parliament in an attempt to push through the document. But as the final hours ran out before the deadline for approving the constitution, Hajim al-Hassani, the speaker of the parliament, appeared to overrule the country's leaders by insisting that negotiations would continue today, meaning that the deadline would be missed for the third time.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the prime minister, made an emergency television appeal for peace and sent two police commando units to Najaf where the fighting had started.

Throughout the day in Baghdad, politicians bickered over how to proceed with the constitution without driving the country to civil war. As a dark and stormy night fell, the government's official spokesman, Laith Kubba, announced that a final version of the document had been decided and compromise reached on three issues, although he did not say which.

Sunni leaders said that no consensus had been reached. Hussein al-Falluji, a Sunni member of the drafting panel, said: "If this constitution continues to include federalism, it should be put in the bin and done again."
If the Sunnis continue to think their opinion matters, they shall be locked out of any representation.
The chances of the parliament convening declined by the minute. Kamal Hamdoun, a Sunni negotiator, said the Shia politicians - the dominant force in the national assembly - had not turned up for a meeting. "They are acting according to the law of force instead of the force of law."
Careful with the Irony Meter! Darned near pegged the thing.
"We call on all Iraqis to vote No in the constitutional referendum."

Shia politicians made clear that they did not see any need for the parliament to vote. The draft is to be put to a referendum in October.

The minority Sunnis, who were the masters under Saddam Hussein, are implacably opposed to the federal nature of the constitution. They fear that it will place oil wealth in the hands of the people who actually earn it Kurds in the north and the Shia in the south.
Posted by:Jackal

#20  "The MSM is all Gloom and Doom™ all the time."

I wish I could remember who first called the MSM "anxiety pimps".
Posted by: Xbalanke   2005-08-26 18:04  

#19  Regardless of how the debate turns out, we have given them the right to debate.

Some kinda damn radical are 'ya?
Posted by: Shipman   2005-08-26 17:47  

#18  Lemme correct, it is a QUACKMIRE.
Posted by: Sobiesky   2005-08-26 12:32  

#17  The MSM is all Gloom and Doom™ all the time. Hell Fire! When we made our Constitution back a few centuries ago, some big issues were tabled for later discussion. The the issues came up again and we had one monster civil war, lost hundreds of thousands of our citizens to war and disease, trashed millions of dollers of infrastructure, and disrupted the lives of millions. Yep. One Tom Wallager Quagmire, all right.

But we kept going. And we are still in a battle over our Constitution and what it means. Who said that creating a country's Constitution is easy? The MSM writers have no sense of history because it is dark where they park their heads.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2005-08-26 12:23  

#16   MSM queasines is that #1 DOES take place.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2005-08-26 11:49  

#15  possible outcomes

1. grand bargain is made, they all agree - main Sunnis support constitution and encourage their folks to vote - big victory
2. Bargain fails - Shiites and Kurds pass constitution it goes to referendum. Sunnis vote, but enough support the constution (which looks fairly moderate) that it passes anyway.
3. Bargain fails - Shiites and Kurd pass constitution, it goes to referendum. Its defeated, (due to losing in 3 or more provinces). New elections are held (which sunnis participate in) and a new govt is formed, process starts over again.
4. Bargain fails - to save time, Shiites and Kurds agree with Sunnis to go to new elections immediatly
5. Dawa and Kurds reach agreeement with Sunnis, SCIRI says no, and starts insurgency in the south.

The MSM queasiness is that 1 wont take place, and the assumption that that means everything goes to hell. First, its not yet clear that 1 is impossible (the Iraqis have come up with last minute compromises before - though the Sunnis have huge incentives not to compromise, since a new election almost certainly leaves them in a stronger position) More importantly, 2 - 5 DONT necessarily mean collapse. It means we're back to the long haul.

Posted by: liberalhawk   2005-08-26 11:44  

#14  th1864: if they can't get along enough too form a gov then just pull out and let them kill each other off. I don't see how 90% of these ppl wipe their own asses

I don't either, but I know this: Allan says do it with your left hand! lululululululu
Posted by: BA   2005-08-26 11:36  

#13  By the way, how's that European constitution coming? You reach a consensus yet?
Posted by: Steve   2005-08-26 11:25  

#12  Is a meltdown worse then a quagmire? How about a brutal Afghan winter? Or was it a brutal Iraqi summer? Is it worse then them? Or worse then all of them combined?
Posted by: tu3031   2005-08-26 11:19  

#11  The Iraqis didn't have these problems when Saddam was in charge: any dissenters wound up dead, sometimes in horrible ways. Regardless of how the debate turns out, we have given them the right to debate.
Posted by: Matt   2005-08-26 10:29  

#10  I love it, the MSM is screaming about missed deadlines and civil war. The negotiation is still going on, they ARE moving forward. At least no one is storming out and the process being dissolved. They will get it right, just have patience.
Posted by: mmurray821   2005-08-26 10:14  

#9  Yeah, yeah, yeah, wishfull thinking by Blairs political opponents, as usual. We hear the same shit , day after day from MSM and the Washington Post over here.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2005-08-26 10:01  

#8  Articles of Confederation came before Constitution, so even we didn't get it right the first time.
Posted by: Mark E.   2005-08-26 09:15  

#7  Quagmire!
Posted by: Snease Pheath5636   2005-08-26 08:56  

#6  "Telegraph on the Brink of Hyperbole!"
Posted by: Tibor   2005-08-26 08:55  

#5  if they can't get along enough too form a gov then just pull out and let them kill each other off. I don't see how 90% of these ppl wipe their own asses
Posted by: Thraing Hupoluper1864   2005-08-26 08:52  

#4  And, a little closer to home, we have our own "Sunnis"... Not only do we have SCOTUS, the 9th Circuit, and other judicial appointments on a mission to remake the country per their agenda, we have the so-called Progressives - who want to rewrite our Constitution. There is entertainment aplenty.
Posted by: .com   2005-08-26 08:26  

#3  It would be amusing to put the Constitution to a vote and have the ex-Baathists say 'vote no' while the Islamists say 'if you vote we will kill you'.
Posted by: mhw   2005-08-26 07:59  

#2  Does anyone remember even after we finished our Constitution (Hey! Did the whole country ever vote on ours?) we had to make a few amendments? We even unmade one.

So what do you suppose are the motives of the one guy who says, "Vote no", which would certainly lead to more stress, more killing, and more bad press? I suppose ol' Sammy himself couldn't have expressed it better.

Let the Iraqis vote. Until then, interview Cindy Sheehan and Joe Wilson again, and everyone in Aruba.
Posted by: Bobby   2005-08-26 07:58  

#1  Iraq on brink of meltdown [Part 23]

Isn't this a monthly declaration since the liberation two years ago? Not counting the number of times that operation was bogged down facing Saddam's elite troops.
Posted by: Ulase Snimble3984   2005-08-26 07:46  

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