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A CONSTITUTION FOR IRAQ

Juan Cole had some interesting comments on Saturday regarding a proposed Iraqi constitution:

“The only question is whether an Iraqi constitutional convention can draft a constitution in only six months or so. Of course, they have some models, not only past Iraqi constitutions but also those of other countries. I personally think they should avoid as models other Arab constitutions, which seem to me deeply flawed. And, they should think seriously about taking some leaves from the US constitution. It is important that each of the 19 provinces has its own elected legislature and governor, and that two-thirds of the provinces approve any subsequent change in the constitution. A bicameral Federal legislature with a senate would allow Sunni Arabs and Kurds to be slightly over-represented, guarding them from a tyranny of the Shiite majority, whereas a lower house could be based on population. And, they should think seriously about adopting some form of the US first amendment. I know they will probably want to make Islam the religion of the state, so the Establishment clause is unlikely to be in there, but they can still require tolerance for non-Muslims. (The UK has a state religion, Anglicanism, but Catholics, Baptists and Muslims are not necessarily ipso facto mistreated there). “

I agree with much of what Professor Cole has written here. While on the surface granting each province it’s own legislature might seem excessive, the future Iraqi state needs to be balanced by independent local governments and a healthy and vibrant civil society. Bremer and an Iraqi Convention face three key problems in crafting a Constitution – limiting the central government’s traditionally repressive grip on Iraqi citizens, preventing the territorial disintegration of Iraq on ethnic and religious lines and preventing one ethnic/religious group from highjacking the machinery of government to dominate Iraq and reimpose a dictatorship.

To Professor Cole’s list I would add restrictions on the future Iraqi state’s ability to monopolize and regulate Iraq’s economy. Unlimited statism which has been the economic model for much of the Arab world has served primarily as an engine of impoverishment, oppression, corruption, debt and war for the peoples of the Mideast. A freer market economy in Iraq will alow civil society to accumulate capital for private enterprise, educational and non-profit institutions, all of which will serve as interests to counterbalance the tendency toward authoritarianism and central control. An Iraqi version of the Federal Reserve, relatively independent of the executive, will stand a better chance of ensuring a sound currency and preventing a future government from expropriating the wealth of the citizenry via devaluations and inflation, as happened in post-Soviet Russia.

DEBORCHGRAVE ON THE HOUSE OF SAUD AND AL QAIDA

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TRIVIALIZING OUR OWN CONSTITUTION

The wisdom of the Framers reveals itself every time some hot-button issue provokes a special interest lobby into a half-cocked and ill-considered plan to amend the Constitution. Were it not for the very high bar of getting two thirds of the States to go along with a proposed amendment the nation might have amendments dealing with gambling addiction, discrimination against the obese and the ” right ” to various goods and services we would like to enjoy but pay for by taxing somebody else.

In addition to religious right demands for a Constitutional amendment banning ” Gay Marriage”, Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. ( D-IL) has proposed no fewer than eight Constitutional amendments including the ” right ” to ” balanced economic growth ” and ” a sustainable environment”. Representative Jackson also in the past has expressed ( in an interview to GQ magazine) a desire to enact major revisions to the Bill of Rights, excising or limiting the scope of the 1st, 2nd, 9th and 10th amendments.

“Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., of Illinois, brought down the house with a vociferous condemnation of federalism. He said that the nation’s greatest problem is “a separate and unequal system” of “50 separate and unequal states and 3,067 separate and unequal counties [that] must be rooted out root and branch.” “The enemy here is the Tenth Amendment, the unenumerated rights” which permits inequalities to exist. Jackson said the only solution is a much stronger central government for “one America,”

I have to commend Congressman Jackson on one point; his position is a at least a consistent and intellectually honest one. Jackson seeks to sweep away all of the Constitutional barriers to unlimited Federal power but he at least respects those barriers as real and genuine legal obstacles to his dangerously statist program. I cannot say as much for those of my conservative bretheren who claim to revere the Constitution and then propose amendments that mangle bedrock Constitutional liberties or principles to make some momentary political statement on Flag-burning, Gay-marriage or some other triviality.

Thank you Mr. Madison for saving us from ourselves.

IN THE VIEW OF THE HARD LEFT IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO SURRENDER NOW

From Ted Rall:

“It’s time to stop throwing good lives after bad. We came for Iraq’s oil, but we’ll never extract crude without seducing Iraqi hearts and minds. That war was lost before we fired the first cruise missiles in March, for a few simple reasons. First, Iraqis spent the ’90s dodging American bombs and trade sanctions. We never knew their pain; they’ll never forget it. Second, our invasion allowed looters and rapists to take over the cities. Anyone who is short a car or a daughter rightly blames us for their loss. Third, we’ve transformed one of the Arab world’s few semi-modern secular states into an anarchic Third World dump. Iraqis hate us. They trust us to do the wrong thing each and every time.”

Ah Ted, thy name is self-referential. Please try to sell that message in Basra and see how the average Iraqi reacts. Quite a few residents of Iraq seem to blame Uday for loss of their daughters, wives, sisters…

There is no evil in the world so terrible in which America’s activist Left cannot find a silver lining if it is also the enemy of the United States

A PRO-WAR PROGRESSIVE TAKES THE REACTIONARY LEFT TO TASK

From Frontpagemag.com. It’s good.