Forget the forecasts of the naysayers, who eagerly interpreted every questioning voice and dissenting opinion as the death-knell of Mid-East democracy. Iraqi leaders of so many beliefs and backgrounds, from every corner of the country, have agreed to compromise on an interim constitution.
"It's a historic document," said Faisal Istrabadi, one of the lead drafters and a senior aide to council member Adnan Pachachi. "Every single article, and each subparagraph, had the consensus of all 25 people in the room... In the best tradition of democracies -- granted, we are an aspiring democracy -- we all compromised."
And what a constitution! Re-creating Iraq as a Federalist nation with a high degree of autonomy granted to the various sections of the country, the constitution provides for a single President and two deputy Presidents, and on many decisions the three must be unanimous. A Prime Minister will run the country's day-to-day affairs, and the directly-elected Iraqi Parliament (which will choose the Presidents) must include at least 25% women. (Minority/female quotas, while counter-productive in America now because of reverse discrimination, were originally briefly helpful.) The Bill of Rights included in the constitution protects free speech, religious expression, freedom of assembly and due process of law. Though Islam will be the official state religion, it will only be considered "a source" for purposes of legislation, not the source. No laws may be passed that violate the tenets of Islam... but on the other hand, no laws may be passed that violate the Bill of Rights, either.
In one of those bizarre and hilarious twists of fate that only historians normally get to see, Iraqis -- for one brief, shining moment, at least -- actually have more rights and fairer taxes than citizens of the United States of America, which brought these freedoms to Iraq.
Like citizens of Russia and Hong Kong, Iraqis now enjoy the benefits of a flat tax system, thanks to an order issued by L. Paul Bremer in September 2003. Though businesses were supposedly taxed at a rate of 45% under Saddam Hussein, the fact that most businesses were State-owned made it rather pointless... it was just another way for Saddam to line his pockets. Individual income taxes were rarely collected, but most Iraqis were paid such ridiculously low wages that it amounted to the same thing. American Conservatives have been lobbying for a simple flat tax -- which would drastically cut down on cheating and nearly eliminate loopholes -- for years with no success.
Because the Iraqis have no laws creating limits on their freedom of speech, they actually enjoy its benefits more than we Americans are able to do these days. Since the McCain-Feingold "Campaign Finance Reform" bill was somehow upheld by the Supreme Court against all logic, our First Amendment right of free speech has been severely curtailed, although you may not have noticed. The Court ruled that "corruption or the appearance of corruption" is sufficient justification to "regulate" our freedom of speech. By banning all political ads within 60 days of an election, McCain-Feingold ensures that the only politics most people will hear about from September on will be whatever interviews the "news" media decides to broadcast. And with members of the "mainstream" media openly admitting to a Liberal bias, how well do you think they'll balance pro-Bush guests and anti-Bush guests?
Perhaps we can find a Conservative version of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to throw out any laws he feels conflict with the "higher law" of the US Constitution.
Except for the official languages being Arabic and Kurdish, and an official state religion being declared, it sounds as though Iraq would be a great place for a Conservative American to visit once the security situation is well in hand. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is an al-Qaeda operative whose presence in Iraq was so highly doubted by the French (and therefore by America's Liberals), but he seems to be there after all. In a recently-intercepted letter to al-Qaeda leaders, he complained that, "[t]here is no doubt that our field of movement is shrinking and the grip around the throat of the Mujahidin has begun to tighten. With the spread of the army and police, our future is becoming frightening."
With Iraq's shiny new constitution and the terrorists fearing for their own future, it seems likely that those who opposed the liberation of Iraq here in America will be just as badly defeated as those who opposed it in the deserts of Iraq.
