NYT,pg1: New U.S. Envoy Will Press Iraqis on Their Charter

[DeepModem Mom]

New U.S. Envoy Will Press Iraqis on Their Charter
By DEXTER FILKINS and JAMES GLANZ
Published: July 26, 2005


BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 25 - The new American ambassador to Iraq waded into the debate over its constitution on Monday, signaling that the United States would work to guarantee the rights of Iraqi women and to blunt the desires of ethnic and religious factions pushing for broader autonomy in the new Iraqi state.

With less than three weeks to go before the country's permanent constitution is supposed to be completed, the new ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, indicated that the United States would play an active and, if need be, public role in brokering what he called a "national compact" among the country's ethnic and sectarian groups.

In remarks at his residence inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, Mr. Khalilzad spoke twice of the need to avert a civil war, a possibility that Iraqi and American officials speak of here with growing frequency. To reach an accommodation, he said, it would be necessary for each of the main ethnic and religious groups to "accept less than its maximum aspirations."...

***

Mr. Khalilzad's public remarks appeared to signal a departure from the previous policy of the Bush administration. Following the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty in June 2004, Mr. Khalilzad's predecessor, John D. Negroponte, rarely appeared in public.

But the urgency of Iraq's situation - exemplified by Mr. Khalilzad's remarks about civil war - seems to have prompted the Bush administration to push its chief diplomat into a more forceful and public role. In Afghanistan, Mr. Khalilzad was deeply engaged in the day-to-day workings of the Kabul government....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/26/international/middleeast/26iraq.html

[Larkspur]

1. What a faux pas? This act will signal to Iraqis that Americans are

writing the Iraqi Constitution to suit American views, not Iraqi views. I also think it is a smokescreen for the American corporatists to make sure that Iraqis don't nationalize the oil industry.

As a feminist, I do want Iraqi women's rights protected, but we can't force them to do so. Force will only breed resentment and there already is a volitle mix of resentment in Iraq today.

[Supersedeas]

2. an active and public role in Iraqica's Constitution