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and civil war. "It's not a problem if a
country breaks up, only if it breaks
up violently," Galbraith says. "Iraq
wasn't created by God. It was created
by Winston ChurchilL"
One of my other càlls on Wednesday
went to another' smart Iraq analyst, Reuel
Marc Gerecht, formerly of the CIA and now at the
American Enterprise Institute. Gerecht's conclusions
are often miles apart from Galbraith's, but both of
them begin their analysis by taking a hard look at the
reality ofIraqi society. Neither tries to imagine what
sort of constitution might bepretty to American eyes
or might be good in some abstract sense. They try to
envision which system comports with reality.
Gerecht is also upbeat about this constitution. It's
crazy, he says, to think that you could have an Iraqi
constitution in which clerical authorities are not as-
signed a significant role. Voters supported clerical
parties because they are, right now, the naturalleaders
of society and serve important social functions.
But this doesn't mean we have to start screaming
about a 13th-century theocratic state. Understanding
the clerics, Gerecht has argued, means understand-
, ing two things. F.ir:~t, the Shiite clerical establishment
has 'ôiâde. ä su~stantial intellectUal leap. It' now '
firmly belIeves 10 one person one vote, and rejects
the Iranian modeL On the other hand, these folkS
. don't think like Americans.
What's important, Gerecht says, is the democratic
process: setting up a system in
which the secular and clerical
groups will have to bargain with
one another, campaign and deal
with the real-world consequences of
their ideas. This is what's going to
moderate them and lead to progress.
This constitution does that. Shutting
them out would lead to war.
'The constitution also exposes the canard that
America is some imperial power trying to impose its
values on the world. There are many parts of this
constitution any American would love. There are
other parts that are strange to Americans.
But when you get Galbraith and Gerecht in the
sàme mood, you know something important has
happened. The United States has orchestrated a document
that is organiCally Iraqi.
, It's their country, after aIL
. '. .' .
Sunniscondemn finallraqi charter
BY Dt~ter Filkins said later that they still rejected the
~---------------..,:- document. Only four Sunni Arabs out
BAGHDAD: Iraqi political leaders of about 40 or 50 leaders attended the
formally presented the nation's draft ceremony, and one of them said he still
constitution to the National Assembly rejected the draft.
on Sunday and said it would be submit- Hachem al-Hassani, the assembly
ted to voters on Oct. 15. Sunni Arab speaker and one of the Sunnis who
political leaders have condemned the supports it, predicted there would be
document and made last-ditch efforts difficulty persuading Sunnis to back
to revise it, even as Shiite and Kurdish the constitution in October.
leaders insisted that it would be pub- "It's not going to be an easy task," he
lished without substantial changes. .said. "They didn't get much of what they
President Jalal Talabani said he wanted. It's going to be very difficult."
hoped the Iraqi people would accept the He also criticized the Shiite political
constitution when it was put to the vote. .leadership: "I think this constitution has
"This is the first constitution in our 'too much religion in it. They took away a
history in which all of the Iraqi people lot of the rights of women."
have taken part," said Talabani, who is Shiite and Kurdish leaders drafting
Kurdish. "I ~now there are gaps in the .the ctmstitution abandoned negoticonstitution,
but only GocÏis comp'lete. ations withSunni representatives on
The Koran is the only book that cannot Friday, deciding to take the charter dibe
changed. The constitution can be rectly to the people. They said they had
amended." run out of patience with Sunni negotia-
President George W. Bush said Sun- tors, who include several former memday
that Iraq should !Je proud of the bers of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.
draft. "Not only will it help make Amer- ' Under the conStitution, Islam will be
ica more secure but it will affect the the official state religion and a main
broader Middle East," he said from his ,source of law. Some of the provisions
ranch in Crawford., Texas. He said that have raised concernS, especially among
Sunnis have the right to disagree. "Of' Iraqi women and secular leaders, who
course there is disagreement," he said. fear that the charter is layi~ the ground-
"We are watching a political process un- work for a full-blown IslamIC state.
fold." But he also warned that more dif- But the main issue on which the neficùlties
lie ahead as the political pro- "gotiations foundered was federalism.
cess. m?ves for~ard., with insurgents The Shiites, who form a majority in
contmumg to strike. . Iraq, want to bringnine Shiite-majority
,i\fter the draft was read to the Nation- provinces, together into one autono-,
a~Assem~ly,th~ ,deputy speaker, Hus- mous federation, mimicking the Kurdsain
al-Shahristani, told the assembled ish autonomous region in northern Iraq.
lawmakérs to .go out and educate the 'fl?e Shiite region, if formed, would con-
Iraqi people about the document. tam almost half of Iraq's population
'But a group of 15Sunnis Arabs ~ho and its riche~t oil reserves.
were part of the drafting.committee The SunOls, who benefited the most
met the U.S. ambassador, Zalmay under Saddam ànd who have formed
Khalilzad., l!nçlother Ir~qi officials arid partQf the ruling class here for hundreds
of years, are fearlul that a Shiite autonomous
region would render the central
government irrelevant and become -a
pawn ofIran, a Shiite theocracy.
The Americans said Saturday that
they had given up tryingto broker an
agreement after days of frUstrating ef-
,forts to negotiate on behalf of the Sunnis.
"We are not going to continue to be the
messenger," said a senior U.S. official in
Baghdad who declined to be identified.
The latest draft includes only slightly
revised language on two critical issues
that have infuriated many Sunnis - the
proposals to create autonomous regions
: and the status of the Baath par'ty.
, If this last chance for consensus is
, missed, Sunni leaders say,the document
that was meant to unify Iraq could instead
provoke more sectarian violence.
, A Sunni member of the constitutional
drafting committee, Mahmoud al-
Mashadani, said Saturday that he
favored approving the document. But he
added that he feared he could become a
target of more militant Sunnis if he
were to speak out about it, particularly
if the Muslim Scholars Association, an
,influential Sunni group, were to denounce
the charter. "Who is going to
protect me when I'm walking in the
streets after that?" he said.
If the draft is voted down in October,
the transitional law requires that new
elections be held. That would throw all
the current political calculations' into
disarray and deliver a serious embarrassment
to U.S. efforts to help build a
working democracy.
Meanwhile,' the Iraqi president's
sp~k~sma_nsa~~ Saturday that Talabani
will visit Bush at the White House next
i month in his first official trip to the
United States. No date was announced.
The New York TImes
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