Under the interim constitution approved Monday, Iraq will be a federalist state with two official languages, a prime minister who runs the country's daily affairs, and a president who can launch a war - but only with the approval of Parliament.http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr..."No one has absolute power," said Entifadh Qanbar, spokesman for Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi. "After what we've been through, we're afraid of that."
Iraq's U.S.-picked Governing Council spent two months wrestling with the interim constitution, which will become law of the land for a year or more, until an elected national assembly writes a replacement.
While this is good news, one has to be wary of the fact that many countries have constitutions, even more liberal that what is included in the US Constitution, but they aren't worth the paper they're written on because the governments and people do not believe in the rule of law. It is far too easy to slip back into despotic regimes to think that a piece of paper will solve all the ills of Iraq. Creating the institutions of federalism will take time, and getting people to put their faith in an untested system in Iraq will take time.
Constitutions are nothing other than a piece of paper. It will take an extraordinary effort to make this experiment in Iraq work.
There are many forces arrayed against Iraq being a functioning nation once again. They include, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the terrorists who breed in lawless regions around the world.
All of the other Arab nations in the region worry that if Iraq can function in some meaningful way as a democracy in a federalist system, that their own governments will come under increasing pressure to reform. Already we can see such pressure building in Iran, where 'elections' were held last week. Of course, in Iran those elections were rigged and strictly controlled by the mullahs who oppose any kind of change from the current system. The current system is nothing but a facade for a religious theocracy that has absolute power on all matters.
That's why the recent earthquake in Bam, and other assorted natural and man-made disasters have seen the local populations show their hatred towards the government. The mullahs refused to appear for fear of their own safety among a population that no longer trusts them. Students rally in many cities while the government tries to clamp down on Internet and sattelite access to the rest of the world.
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