Coming Soon: Iraq's (Islamic-ruled) Democracy
One of the many excuses for the war was that through it, we would bring democracy to the Middle East. Just consider Iraq Bush's guinea pig. The new Iraqi government is hours away from the deadline set to vote on a draft for the constitution, and it looks like the first experiment in Middle East democracy could blow up in his face.
As the new Iraqi government prepares the draft of its constitution, we can see that they are not creating the peaceful America-friendly democracy Bush promised us in 2003. The new Iraq will be a loose federation of states with a weak central government that will be ruled by Islamic law. The draft states that Iraq will be an Islamic state, in which no law will be allowed to contradict the principles of Islam.
The draft calls for clerics to act as interpreters of the constitution, in a similar role to the Supreme Court in the United States. This gives clerics the power to decide cases based either on civil law or religious law as the individual cleric sees fit. Setting this precedent will have a devastating effect on women in Iraq, who once enjoyed rights and privileges unheard of in the Muslim world.
Regions of Iraq, particularly in the southern Shiite-ruled areas, will be heavily influenced by neighboring Iran. Iran is dominated by Shiites and is an extremist Islamic state. This product of the war on terror will definitely not to make Americans safer.
The Sunni minority in Iraq has complained that it has been shut out of recent talks on the draft and does not feel included in the document. Shiites and Kurds however, do not seem interested in listening to the protests and concerns of Sunnis. "We gave a choice -- whoever doesn't want federalism can opt not to practice it," said Shiite constitutional committee member Ali Debagh. Shiites and Kurds hold enough of a majority to pass the draft even without Sunni acceptance, but completely shutting out an entire segment of the population lays the groundwork for political and civil disaster in Iraq.
But the government is ready to plow ahead anyway, with or without Sunni support, in order to meet the deadline. The deadline, arbitrarily imposed upon Iraq, called for the draft to be voted on a week ago, but extended it when it became clear that an agreement would not be made in time. The pressure to meet the deadline has the government more concerned with getting the draft done than getting it done right. If the Bush administration truly wants a solid democracy in Iraq, they should recognize this and help Iraq draft a constitution that does not exclude any group and is acceptable to all.
Saddam Hussein was by no stretch of the imagination a good or benevolent ruler, but what we have brought to Iraq is deplorable as well. We have forced them to trade their secular government and personal freedoms for a country governed by strict religious rules and a divisiveness among groups that could very well lead to civil war. Maybe this is how Bush defines democracy, but it is certainly not what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
As the new Iraqi government prepares the draft of its constitution, we can see that they are not creating the peaceful America-friendly democracy Bush promised us in 2003. The new Iraq will be a loose federation of states with a weak central government that will be ruled by Islamic law. The draft states that Iraq will be an Islamic state, in which no law will be allowed to contradict the principles of Islam.
The draft calls for clerics to act as interpreters of the constitution, in a similar role to the Supreme Court in the United States. This gives clerics the power to decide cases based either on civil law or religious law as the individual cleric sees fit. Setting this precedent will have a devastating effect on women in Iraq, who once enjoyed rights and privileges unheard of in the Muslim world.
Regions of Iraq, particularly in the southern Shiite-ruled areas, will be heavily influenced by neighboring Iran. Iran is dominated by Shiites and is an extremist Islamic state. This product of the war on terror will definitely not to make Americans safer.
The Sunni minority in Iraq has complained that it has been shut out of recent talks on the draft and does not feel included in the document. Shiites and Kurds however, do not seem interested in listening to the protests and concerns of Sunnis. "We gave a choice -- whoever doesn't want federalism can opt not to practice it," said Shiite constitutional committee member Ali Debagh. Shiites and Kurds hold enough of a majority to pass the draft even without Sunni acceptance, but completely shutting out an entire segment of the population lays the groundwork for political and civil disaster in Iraq.
But the government is ready to plow ahead anyway, with or without Sunni support, in order to meet the deadline. The deadline, arbitrarily imposed upon Iraq, called for the draft to be voted on a week ago, but extended it when it became clear that an agreement would not be made in time. The pressure to meet the deadline has the government more concerned with getting the draft done than getting it done right. If the Bush administration truly wants a solid democracy in Iraq, they should recognize this and help Iraq draft a constitution that does not exclude any group and is acceptable to all.
Saddam Hussein was by no stretch of the imagination a good or benevolent ruler, but what we have brought to Iraq is deplorable as well. We have forced them to trade their secular government and personal freedoms for a country governed by strict religious rules and a divisiveness among groups that could very well lead to civil war. Maybe this is how Bush defines democracy, but it is certainly not what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
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