U.S. Claims Diplomatic Victory on Iraq Constitution

[pinto]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday claimed a diplomatic victory in Iraq (news - web sites)'s tortuous march toward sovereignty after the Iraqi Governing Council signed an interim constitution despite persistent reservations from the country's leading Shi'ite Muslim cleric.


President Bush (news - web sites), who was visiting his native Texas for a campaign fund-raiser, called the signing "a historic milestone" that established American-style freedoms of religion, speech and assembly for Iraq while moving the Muslim nation toward sovereignty and democratic elections.

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The Republican president, who justified last year's U.S.-led Iraq war by citing the threat from weapons of mass destruction that were never found, has described the goal of establishing democracy in Iraq as part of a larger initiative to bring democratic reforms to the Middle East region.

(more)


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040308/pl_nm/iraq_usa_dc

[Tempest]

1. Reality Check

This is not a Constitution, it's a framework.

There are still many issues to be resolved and I don't see the parties all coming together to agree on a permanent paper.

[daleo]

2. I read it, it expires by the end of 2005, so it is only interim.

One interesting aspect of it was the focus on the relationship between the individual and the state, which struck me as very American (U.S. that is). The stuff about the federal nature of the country (federal vs state/provincial jurisdictions, taxing powers, etc.) seemed kind of sparse. I would have expected a greater focus on this in a state as ethnically and historically complex as Iraq (I am a Canadian, and that is where our constitutional debates generally founder).

Others may have different interpretations.