Democracy on the March

[DaveT]

You can't make shit like this up. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051013/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

Iraqi Lawmakers OK Last-Minute Amendments

By MARIAM FAM, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi lawmakers approved a set of last-minute amendments to the constitution without a vote on Wednesday, sealing a compromise designed to win Sunni support and boost chances for the charter's approval in a referendum just three days away.

The deal, brokered with intense U.S. mediation, came as insurgents pressed their campaign to wreck Saturday's referendum.

/snip/

Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani also weighed in, ordering Shiites to vote "yes" in the referendum, one of his aides, Faisal Thbub, said.

/snip/

The most significant change is the introduction of a mechanism allowing Sunni Arabs to try to make more substantive changes in the constitution later, after a new parliament is elected in December.

/snip/

The hour-long session, attended by 159 of parliament's 275 members — ended without the lawmakers voting on the amendments, but Parliament Speaker Hajim al-Hassani said no actual vote was necessary and that the compromise was approved.

The deal had already been accepted by the main parties in parliament after it was reached Tuesday night following three days of marathon negotiations, shepherded by U.S. officials. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad attended Wednesday's parliament session.

I recently chortled at a short lived attempt by the unsupervised Shiites and Kurds to change the rules of the vote count on this "Constitution," but the American overlords vetoed that brazen effort to humiliate the Sunni faction in Iraq. With the UN throwing dead cats at that scheme, our Proconsul's staff quickly stepped in to restore the dignity of this election "process."

At the time I asked if anybody knew if the final draft of the thing had ever been settled -- and tonight's dispatch from the fronteir provides the answer: NOPE, with three days to go before the Iraqi People get to have their say on their future, the American "mediators" are still busy cutting and pasting on the Word File.

A pretty obvious question about that "say" that the long suffering Iraqi people are finally going to get this Saturday is, "What do the Iraqi people know about this Constitution they are voting on?"

I remember reading a few weeks ago that some number of millions of copies of the thing with over 300 articles were going to be distributed to the voters two weeks before the vote. Obviously, whatever -- if anything -- that really got handed out is not what will be voted upon. Furthermore, even if the text had been honestly put together by the Iraqis themselves without American "mediation," and even if this text had been distributed weeks ago, it is simply ludicrous to imagine that the Iraqi "electorate" could engage in an informed democratic consideration of the proposal.

This is all a sham. This "constitution" which changes every few days will never govern Iraq. Eventually, a new government will assume control, and it will establish its own mode of operation. Federal or centralized? Sharia or secular? Liberal or authoritarian? Those questions will all be answered by the Iraqis once the Americans are gone -- whether that is six months from now or six years from now.

For now, we have the spectacle of a Grand Ayatollah ordering his flock to the polls to vote YES.



Come Sunday morning, the "news" will be all about the great "victory" for George Bush with the approval of this farcical constitution. Bet your ass that FOX will gloat about it; bet your liver that the Bush rear guard punditocracy will suggest that this great "success" will help Bush "turn the corner" on his political troubles.

Pardon me while I puke now and avoid the rush this weekend.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Well..

I hope it works out for them.

And I hope people here don't let up on holding this administration's feet to the fire.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. It's all bogus. What possible difference is this "constitution"

going to make, except piss off the sunnis even more?

By Monday hundreds more people will be dead in Iraq, and the place will further dissolve into chaos.

[Sapphire Blue]

3. Much like radical clerics Robertson, Dobson, et al, issuing orders to

... their flocks to vote for bush, support Miers, etc.

[DaveT]

4. The early hype

is about how peaceful the day was.

Tomorrow morning the question will be how many voted, not how the many voted. Of course, how they voted is meaningless.

It is an early test of the MSN's new skepticism on Bush.