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

To: Brumar89 who wrote (157401)	1/30/2005 7:00:51 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

"There was almost a party atmosphere in the streets around the BBC bureau in Baghdad, with Iraqis we met delighted at being able to cast a democratic vote. " Excerpt from BBC reporters logs. news.bbc.co.uk

To: Brumar89 who wrote (157401)	1/31/2005 2:24:12 PM
From: GST	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 281500

<It may be easily forgotten in the post-election spin that Sunday's vote was not the Bush administration's idea—quite the contrary. The U.S. had never intended for Iraqis to democratically choose the body that would write their new constitution; Washington had envisaged an election only after a constitution had been written by a body appointed by, and under the tutelage of the U.S. Initially, the plan had been to hand power to returning exiles after toppling Saddam Hussein. When the exiles proved too unpopular, the U.S. then sought to have its handpicked Iraqi Governing Council write the new constitution. Even after the IGC proved incapable, the Bush administration consistently rejected Sistani's demand for democratic elections. Instead, U.S. administrator J. Paul Bremer proposed, that a constitution-making body be appointed by a series of caucuses comprising handpicked elites around the country. Sistani was having none of it. He insisted on democratic elections, used his influence among Shiites on the Governing Council to block Bremer's scheme, and then brought his supporters onto the streets to warn that anything short of democracy would be deemed illegitimate by the Shiite majority.> time.com