Article

2005-08-24 Terror Networks & Islam

With eyes on Iraq, Arabs fear spread of federalism

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Fred 2005-08-24 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Lol. Be afraid. Be very very afraid.

Posted by .com 2005-08-24 01:52|| 2005-08-24 01:52|| Front Page Top

#2 The real issue is that given the choice why wouldn't the Shia in Saudi Arabia try to join up in a Federal Iraq where they can be protected and get more of a share of their oil wealth. Why wouldn't the Kurds in Syria and Iran try to join up and live in a state that won't repress them.

A successful Federalism in Iraq threates to chip away all of her neighbors. The leaders of the neighboring country see this and thus have been reluctant to stop the insurgents from flowing from their territory into Iraq. In some cases they've actively helped those insurgents.

Posted by rjschwarz 2005-08-24 10:04|| 2005-08-24 10:04|| Front Page Top

#3 "Federalism was not one of the concepts in the Arab political dictionary, until now," he said.

Neither was free speech, rule of law or voting.

Posted by Dreadnought 2005-08-24 10:21|| 2005-08-24 10:21|| Front Page Top

#4 Good luck putting this genie back in the bottle, Zarqawi-n-company...

Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious 2005-08-24 10:24|| 2005-08-24 10:24|| Front Page Top

#5 It really cracks me up that virtually every major argument of the American constitution has come up again and again with other nations. And yet, several of their brilliant and innovative solutions that have worked for us for 200 years have been ignored. For example, a bicameral legislature with an upper house based on a federalized district, and a lower house based solely on population. This solved the great problem of small states vs large *and* more populous vs less populous. Iraq is mistakenly seen as broken into three basic parts, until you examine it as 18 federal states. Several of those states are "swing" states, ethnically, and could vacillate considerably over time, based on demographic changes. This puts pressure on a federal government to moderate its views to get support from these swing states.

Ironically, Kurdistan represents to the Iraqi Constitution what slavery did in the US Constitution. Their demands for protection of their independence is really a demand for confederation, not federalism. This means that the future holds one of two courses: either a complete integration of Kurdistan into a greater Iraqi union; or an eventual breakdown into two nations.

If Kurds continue with their push for ethnic separation and a de facto split from the economy and social structure of the rest of Iraq, eventually they will either have a civil war, or a wise Iraqi leader, like the Czech leader Havel, will let them go without a fight. Hopefully, he will choose the latter course.

Posted by Anonymoose 2005-08-24 21:58|| 2005-08-24 21:58|| Front Page Top

00:34 Zhang Fei
00:17 Zhang Fei
00:02 .com
00:01 True German Ally
23:59 Jan
23:58 muck4doo
23:56 True German Ally
23:56 .com
23:55 muck4doo
23:55 True German Ally
23:53 muck4doo
23:52 Jan
23:52 True German Ally
23:50 muck4doo
23:49 True German Ally
23:46 Rafael
23:44 Rafael
23:43 .com
23:43 muck4doo
23:42 muck4doo
23:41 muck4doo
23:40 muck4doo
23:38 Rafael
23:36 Pappy