Iraq tripartite solution: It's my constitution and I'll fight (or sing) if I want to
■"Agreeing to Disagree in Iraq: Even a good constitution can destroy a country," op-ed by Noah Feldman, New York Times, 30 August 2005, p. A23.■"Sunni Opposition to Iraqi Draft Constitution Intensifies," by Robert F. Worth, New York Times, 30 August 2005, p. A6.
■"'Star' Lights Up Auds in Iraq: Talent show offers viewers an escape," by Ali Jaffar, Variety, 29 August-4 September 2005, p. 32.
Noah Feldman, the law school prof who helped the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq make its initial efforts to encourage the drafting of a constitution there, says the constitution is a passable one (warts and all) but that it will fail because the Sunnis won't buy into it: "The major problem is one of who is agreeing, not what they have agreed on."
So I guess a crappier constitution that everyone could agree to would be better? Or would we just end up with no one signing up?
No offense, but only an academic could come up with this sort of logic.
We set the Kurdish quest for autonomy in motion by refusing to deal with Saddam decisively back in Desert Storm, later satisfying ourselves with the northern and southern no-fly-zones that did little to achieve Shiite independence from Saddam in the south but effectively created a Kurdish mini-state in the north. That historical dynamic was our choice, or basically the choice of Bush the Elder and all his fabled "realists."
Expecting the recently liberated Shiite population to demand less than the long-independent Kurds is simply too much to ask, so the break-up of Iraq's unitary state was predetermined by America's unwillingness to follow through 14 years ago. We didn't pay the piper back then, so now we must do so by having to contend with a Sunni-based insurgency that is fueled, in no small part, but their resentment over this constitutional outcome.
But as long as we give Sunni resistance the sense that more violence will somehow hold up this train, the more violence we'll get. As one Sunni leader admitted, "My heart says no, [but] my mind says yes [to the constitution], because we have to move along."
Some Sunnis-especially the old Baathists-will fight on no matter what, but most, I think it's fair to say, crave a more normal life.