Iraq charter update fails as U.S. fights in north (Talks end..no changes)

[RedEarth]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's main Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim sects abandoned efforts to amend a draft constitution on Tuesday and a version rejected by many Sunnis will be printed.


"The talks have ended. We did not reach any agreement on making changes to the draft. It will be printed in the form it was read to the National Assembly last week," Bahaa al-Araji, a member of the parliamentary drafting committee, told Reuters.

"No changes will be made," he said, adding that five million copies will be printed, starting on Thursday. The constitution, due to be voted on in a referendum by October 15, has been a source of tension in Iraq as Sunnis, long the dominant political force, fear losing influence to majority Shi'ites, who were oppressed under Saddam Hussein.

The government is largely composed of southern Shi'ites and Kurds from the north, and, backed by U.S. troops, faces a Sunni insurgency.
The Sunni minority could also kill the constitutional draft at the referendum if it can muster a two-thirds majority of no votes in three of Iraq's 18 provinces.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050906/wl_nm/iraq_dc

[Zhade]

1. Hello civil war.

NT!

[shavedape]

2. civil war is just a very very messy form of freedom (nt)

and freedom aint free, or something.

[delete_bush]

3. Iraq + Katrina = too much pressure =

Chimpy's gonna go back on the sauce.

[acmavm]

4. Go back? I don't doubt for a minute that he's drinking the cooking sherry

as we speak. They probably have to hide the rubbing alcohol from him lately.