Iraqi constitution roundup

Steven Taylor goes through the draft document, line by line. He also addresses the concerns "some secular Iraqi leaders have concerning the constitution.

Ultimately I don’t see how it is possible in this context to utterly divorce Islam from the constitution, given the importance of Islam to large and substantial portions of the Iraqi people. The best that can hoped for is a reasonable fusion of the secular and the religious that avoids theocratic governance. And how well that can or will work remains to be seen.

Eleana Gordon notes that editorialists have already decided that Iraq will become "an Iranian-style Shiite theocracy."

But the real difference is that in Iran, ultimate power rests with "Supreme Leader" and a "Council of Guardians" that are not elected by the general population - as far as I know, no such model is being proposed in Iraq. The key positions of power will still be elected, with the possibility of amending the constitution.

As Jon Snow expained in his analysis of the recent Iranian elections, the idea of democracy in Iran is a complete fraud, since all candidates for the Presidency and the Parliament must be approved by the Council of Guardians, which has no qualms about rejecting candidates opposed to the Islamic Republic.

Norm Geras receives an email from Brendan O'Leary, who has written extensively on the Iraqi constitutional process.

Insurgent Sunni Arabs are at war with Shi'a Arabs and in their dreams would re-conquer Kurdistan. The fallacy that they constitute an "Iraqi" nationalist resistance should be laid to rest: it is an illusion beloved by both Sunni Arabs and critics of America's decision to depose Saddam. The resistance is that of a formerly dominant minority, and it is either fascistic or religiously fanatical, or both, in thought and deed; it is not a program of self-government [-] to the extent that it is a program it is one that demands to govern others against their will. Their international jihadist supporters in the Sunni world, notably al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, regard the Shi'a Arabs as heretics and treat Iraq as a site for a holy war of redemption. They don't want to be, and cannot be part of the new constitution. The success of the constitution must be measured by their eventual defeat. They cannot be "included", directly, or indirectly. To treat with others as their supposed interlocutors, as the Bush administration has undoubtedly contemplated, only
serves to undermine the legitimacy of the transitional Iraqi government.