What He Said
August 16th, 2005 - 12:13 am
This delay is a setback for the Bush Administration, particularly on the PR front, but so long as the constitution gets done in such a way that equal rights for men and women are assured, Sharia law is not codified, and basic human rights for minorities are legally protected, I
I believe it took our framers 13 years to create our constitution, and they had a mostly common cause, and similar backgrounds. For us to begrudge the Iraqis another week is beyond ridiculous. Only the lefties and the MSM will try and make hay with this. Jeff is exactly right, let’s hope they get it done correctly, not quickly.
Pass the mustard-wasabi sauce and a Grey Goose with blue cheese olives.
Even as an ‘America-hating liberal’, I’ve got to agree – this is hardly a crisis. Our own founding fathers very deliberately left some contentious issues to be handled later (Bill of Rights, etc.) just to make the Constitution acceptable to the states. Other specifics, like freedom of speech, fed-vs-state authority, slavery, etc. had to worked on by future folks, and I think the Iraqis will continue to improve their situation.
Of course, it might be interesting to inject this info into a discussion of potential SCOTUS candidates, but that’s another thread, no?
This has the PR up-side of showing that the Iraqis are working from their country’s own needs and are not answering only to the demands of the Bush administration.
What the hell is with people putting wasabi mustard crap on perfectly good fish these days?
Wasabi belongs on fish if it’s a small piece on a lump of rice.
A nice grilled piece of fish doesn’t need it, damn it.
PR loss due to a week long delay? Give me a break.
If Bush wants some positive PR, AMERICAN SOLDIERS NEED TO STOP DIEING!!!
I understand acceptable losses, and the American Public has been VERY patient and supportive of a war that began with a false premise. Patience is not infinite. I
Aaron
I think the war started for a false premise is in fact a false premis shouted out from the rooftops by the MSM and Democrats every chance they get. Hey if you are going to lie, lie big and be consistent
I agree. WMD has been found in Iraq, in small quantities. The stock piles that we feared were not found, or haven
The worry, as suggested by the WaPo and Kissenger, is that rights for women will be supressed, Sharia law will be codified, basic human rights for minorities will be minimally protected, and the new government will be a stated enemy of our other regional ally: Israel.
If that’s the result, the domino theory (that I believed) will never happen. Regional dictators will be emboldened. Iran may end up with a new, friendly, theocratic neighbor instead of a model democracy.
It’s very possible that this administration has failed, totally, to execute the plan needed to acheive such an objective.
How about for a headline, “Iraqis are arguing instead of shooting each other.” Democracy doesn’t mean that everyone agrees with each other, or that there aren’t some deep differences between people, only that they’ve agreed to use words and ballots, not bullets.
Lets just see if I have this straight. We have sacrificied close to 2000 American men and women and many, many billions of dollars in exchange for the opportunity to nation build in the western hostile Middle East, where the results of this opportunity are ‘skeptical’ at best. And according to Jeff and Steven, this sacrifice is ‘satisfactory’.
Where did all the libertarians go?
The current Iraqi government is holding the status quo on foreign policy. Once Iraq has a constitution and freely elected government based on a constitution that they wrote, lets see what how ELETCED Arabs deal with Iran and Israel. I guarantee the world will be surprised.
What will happen when Iraq opens its borders to Palestinian refugees and offers them citizenship? Saddam was already doing this (contingent on Baath membership) to the dismay of the Arab world. Sunni Iraqis are much more concerned with increasing their population than dealing with the Arab world
“A truly democratic Arab country in the heart of the Middle East CHANGES EVERYTHING.”
Totally agree.
I see that as a 50% chance of happening at best.
any step towards democracy in that part of the world is a huge step toward democracy.. i don’t see the delay with the iraqi constitution as being any real issue at all
Here’s my last ramble on this thread.
Iraqs are not willing to fight for their own liberty and democracy. The only faction reliably willing to fight for freedom and liberty are the Kurds – and the Kurds fight for Kurds, not for British-created Iraq. For the remaider of Iraq, democracy is being imposed by the US and is being *somewhat* secured by US forces (aka Coalition Forces). If Iraqs are not willing to fight and die for their own liberty, do you believe that what is created will last without the presence of US security? For a long time. This directly translates to US bodybags. For a long time.
In my mind, unlike our host, this is NOT at all ‘satisfactory’. I’ll take the lives of our US servicemen over this illusion of democratic progress in Iraq anyday. If we sacrifice our troops, the threat must be directly apparent – think Japan and Pearl Harbor or Taliban and planes imploding the WTC.
The government is betting on the best case scenario – that a democratic Iraq is of more value to US security than the lives of our troops and the exhorbitant tax money spent. This democratic Iraq will change the whole middle east. Suddenly a renaissance will occur leading to a reformation of Islam. The madrassas will be abandoned and hate of infidels will no longer be taught. Tolerance of other cultures and religions will the fatwa of the land. This sounds like a 60s liberal gone mad with rabies.
Why are we subsidizing Iraq, when other dangers, increasingly clear and present exist? N. Korea and Iran come to mind. Removing clear and present dangers is what our military is intended for and has trained for. In WWII, the Germans and the Japanese were completely defeated and indeed needed and wanted our help vis-a-vi the Marshall Plan to get back into the 1st World. No such pre-conditions exist here in Iraq.
We removed the cancer. Let the Iraq’s do with Iraq what they wish. Forcing, in Tito-like fashion, these factions to build a nation together is folly. I though that liberals were the idealists, but this neocon misadventure takes the cake. Removing despots is the best that the US can do for any foreign country that doesn’t exhibit a clear and present danger. As soon as the WMD fallacy was exposed, we should have left. We are sacrificing our youth and our treasure to do something that the CIA should do – remove/assassinate repressive dictators and leaders who purport some ideology not based on personal liberty and who subjugate their people.
Conveniently, we are next door to Iran.
Question… What happened to the people of Afghanistan??? Did we forget something. How many lives and how much money have we invested into Iraq, that fights us tooth and nail, when the original effort of the war started in a different country? If democracy was the actual reason that we went to war, then why did we not take the path of least resistance?
…wait…the afghans do not control the major oil wells….
If I wanted to tame a dog, I would start with the docile one with a good temperament. I do not understand why we picked the dog that is foaming at the mouth to start our “crusade”!
Wise Protein
Has anyone (other than Stephen Green) noticed that Jeff Goldstein has been on frakkin’ fire recently? He had a brief existential crisis a few months…