Sounds like a wonderful plan.
I really like how certain (some) people plan things.
Must be when asleep.
anybody disagrees?



On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 16:24:44 EST, Wirt Atmar <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Greg asks:
>
>> What kind of government does the Iraqi constititution define? What kind 
of
>>  democracy? Do they have a balance of powers? Branches? A bicameral
>>  legislative body? Parliament? Is it determined by majority vote, or an
>>  electoral college, or representative rule? Is there a chief executive? 
If
>>  so, what is his title? In fact, who did they elect to their chief office
>>  anyway? Who can vote? Can women vote? At what age can someone vote? Who
>>  cannot? Non-nationals? Can criminals vote? Those whose crime was
>dissidence?
>>  Who is a non-national or a criminal in a post-Saddam Iraq?
>
>Thomas Friedman of the NY Times asks very much the same questions in 
today's
>issue of the paper. The basic answer is that no one knows, not even the
>Iraqis, and certainly not the Americans. I've included the most relevant 
parts of
>his opinion piece here:
>
>========================================
>
>December 21, 2005
>Op-Ed Columnist
>
>The Measure of Success
>By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
>
>It is terrific that Iraqis just had another free and fair election and that
>some 11 million people voted. Americans should be proud that we helped to 
bring
>that about in a region that has so rarely experienced any sort of 
democratic
>politics.
>
>But what's still unclear is this: Who and what were Iraqis voting for? Were
>they voting for Kurdish sectarian leaders, who they hope will gradually 
split
>Kurdistan off from Iraq? Were they voting for pro-Iranian Shiite clerics, 
who
>they hope will carve out a Shiite theocratic zone between Basra and 
Baghdad?
>Were they voting for Sunni tribal leaders, who they hope will restore the 
Sunnis
>to their "rightful" place - ruling everyone else? Or, were they voting for 
a
>unified Iraq and for politicians whom they expect to compromise and rewrite
>the Constitution into a broadly accepted national compact?
>
>If they were voting for Iraqi sects, then it means that there are no Iraqi
>citizens - only Shiites, Kurds, Sunnis etc., trapped together inside Iraq's
>artificial borders. If, however, they were voting for a unified Iraq and 
Iraqi
>leaders who will make that happen, we still have a chance for a decent 
outcome.
>
>Because if there are Iraqi citizens, and national leaders, then we have
>partners for the kind of Iraq we hope to see built. In that case, we must 
stay the
>course. If there are no Iraqi citizens, or not enough, then we have no real
>partners and staying the course will never produce the self-sustaining 
Iraq we
>want.
>
>President Bush talks about Iraq as if it were a given that there is a 
single
>Iraqi aspiration for exactly the kind of pluralistic democracy America 
would
>like to see built in Iraq, and that the only variable is whether we stay 
long
>enough to see it through. I wish that were so - our job would be easy. But 
it
>is not so. It still is not clear what is the will of the Iraqi people. In 
the
>wake of this election, though, we are about to find out.
>
>Everything now rides on what kind of majority the Iraqi Shiites want to be
>and what kind of minority the Sunnis want to be. Will the Shiites prove to 
be
>magnanimous in victory and rewrite the Constitution in a way that decent 
Sunnis,
>who want to be citizens of a unified Iraq, can accept? Will the Sunnis 
agree
>to accept their fair share of Iraq's oil revenue and government posts - and
>nothing more?
>
>My own visits to Iraq have left me convinced that beneath all the 
tribalism,
>there is a sense of Iraqi citizenship and national identity eager to come 
out.
>But it will take more security, and many more Iraqi leaders animated by
>national reconciliation, for it to emerge in a sustained way.
>
>Unlike many on the left, I'm not convinced that this will never happen and
>that all of this has been for naught. Unlike many on the right, I'm not
>convinced that it will inevitably happen if we just stay the course long 
enough. The
>only thing I am certain of is that in the wake of this election, Iraq will 
be
>what Iraqis make of it - and the next six months will tell us a lot. I 
remain
>guardedly hopeful.
>
>How will you know if things are going well? Easy. The Iraqi Army will
>suddenly become effective without U.S. guidance. It will know how to 
fight, because
>it will know what - and whom - it is fighting for.
>
>========================================
>
>Wirt Atmar
>
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