Iraqi Constitution deadline delayed by a week

Well today, the interim Iraqi government extended the United States imposed deadline by a week to come up with a constitution of how to govern themselves, and how to allocate oil reserves amongst the various factions. They have allowed an extra week to come to some kind of decisions, or face a crisis in the government, which will mean new elections. This whole process has been a bit of a farce in my mind.

First, I am all for self-governance, and the people of Iraq should feel be able to choose their own leaders and determine what style of government they wish to utilize. Second, I am not sure why political boundaries determined after World War I, are still in use today and necessary in today's world. Why not allow Kurdistan, Sunni land and Shi'iteville to become sovereign nations, I guess because Turkey, Iran and other regional countries will take over, but is that so bad? Has anyone asked the man or woman on the street in Baghdad, or Basra or Falujah or anywhere else in Iraq, what he or she want or how they wish to be governed? This is not 1776. This is not a time when an entire political system can be established at gunpoint of another country. We are acting exactly like the European powers of the late 19th century, trying to tell others how they should be, since they are obviously too uncivilized for their own good, or to backwards to know what is best for themselves.

Can you imagine the Founding Fathers of this country, being given an ultimatum and a deadline that they need to have a declaration of independence and constitution by July 4, 1776? Well, these events happened 13 years apart. After the Declaration of Independence was written, they states adopted the Articles of Federation, which banded the 13 colonies together in a federalist government system, that allowed the states equal rights to the federal government. This allowed them to fight and win the Revolutionary War (maybe that is how the Iraqi insurgents see this war, which may not be different then how communist North Vietnam saw that conflict) and begin self-rule. It was not until 1789, that the states realized that federalism did not work for them at that time, and a new constitutional congress was convened.

Now imagine that France, our ally at the time dictated to us that we needed to have established a new constitution immediately after the War is over in 1783. In addition, it has to be based upon the existing French system at the time. As we know this is ridiculous, since French went through its own revolution just a few years later in 1789. This seemingly crazy concept is exactly what we are doing in Iraq now, by imposing a deadline, because we want to withdraw our troops.

I want our troops out of Iraq as much as anyone does. We went there for the wrong reasons (nepotism, distraction, etc) in the first place but it is not worth debating that now, but for the life of me, I have no idea of half the country cannot believe the fact that there are no weapons of mass destruction nor is there any connection between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, but as I said, that is another story.

Now we are there, and in spite of the fact that candidate George W. Bush said we are not in the nation building business that is exactly what we are doing. What we have done is allow an Islamic fundamentalist breeding ground to be built. A place where every one who hates the US can use to point a finger of what is wrong with American and scratch the scab of fundamentalist, and to stir the hate against the US. So ultimately, I think we are stuck there, as peacekeepers for the long term and that means more soldiers will die. As mentioned earlier, if Iraq collapses the surrounding countries are going to come in a stake claims to their territories and the primary reason why we care about this and not about the Balkan conflict in the 80's and 90's? That is right boys and girls, OIL!

I was shocked to pay $2.75 for regular gasoline today and George W. Bush is still on vacation, with no clear plan to relieve the increasing cost of energy. I am sure the big oil companies are making record profits. Amazing. I guess I should not be surprised.

Such is life I guess !!!