Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (79018)	3/2/2003 1:34:38 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I like it. A couple of problems, however. First I can't read the type in that proposed constitution. Presumably I could if I changed the typeface but the 13 pages might bloom to 26 if I did so. Lots to read. I'll take a pass. However, second problem. The bet involves a functioning democracy, not something on paper. Things on paper can be not only distant from reality but they can be ever distant. So, need a functioning democracy. Third problem, your timeline leaves out the very strong possibility of a good deal of grudge settling and ethnic conflict that follows Saddam's death/departure. That will not be easy for the US to address but how they do will determine a great deal of the future. As I read the Times Magazine piece, one direction will be an ethnic based government rather than an individual based. That is, give different ethnic groups different levels of representation rather than some sort of one vote per person. Is that democracy? Perhaps. Worth a discussion. Fourth problem, occupation forces, which is what the US forces will be as soon as the invasion is over, are historically the target of guerilla warfare. Just how much, how effective, and of what length will also be critical in determining how well a "democracy" functions. Geez, I'm beginning to sound like a foreign policy realist.

To: greenspirit who wrote (79018)	3/2/2003 2:47:11 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

re: Iraqi Constitution: 1. The basic "fault" in the past, is that no significant fraction of the Iraqi population, with the recent exception of the Kurds, said, "Give me liberty or give me death". No "scrap of paper" means anything unless people are willing to support it, with their lives if necessary. And no foreign army can substitute for that willingness. 2. <centralization has lost its appeal> Without it, you get another Afghanistan: chaos, a playground for foreign interests and local warlords. 3. a State Religion is incompatible with the ideals stated in the Preamble. 4. Will the Assembly of the Kurdish Region be acceptable to the Turks? 5. Will the southern Shiites want their own Federated Region? 6. this document isn't clear about the division of power between the Regions and central governments. And that's the crucial question. How much of the oil revenue does the Kurdish Region get?