[sackofcatfood]

Highly insightful, but I would venture one small unanswered question: how will the initial constitution be decided?

America had elected and appointed representives fed by an aristocracy at the time of the Revolution to vote on a new constitution.

The Iraqis, on the otherhand, have no government. And whatever may remain of the former government should certainly not be reintroduced to power.

[Kadric]

It has been my thoughts and it appears that the author also realizes. That the job in Iraq is to first establish local governments based on the cities. Then basically states, building one level at a time. Then let those governments have a Constitution Convention with the results submitted to the people to be ratified.

[Congressman Billybob]

In answer to your question about "how will the new constitution be decided" --

One of the duties of the Iraqi Interim Government will be to write and propose the new Iraqi Constitution. The US will advise and consult very heavily in this process, because otherwise it is likely to be screwed up, especially on the theocracy point.

Ratification will be a more interesting propostion. By that time, there should be both city governments and regional ones in the three main parts of Iraq. A referendum to approve the Iraq Constitution is probably a bad idea, since the Shi'ites (who have a majority) might turn on the Constitution and defeat it, precisely because it is not a theocracy. The better route might be to ask the lower level governments in Iraq (like the states in the US) to ratify on behalf of their citizens.

History is going to be a great teacher for this Iraqi process -- not just the history of the American Constitution, but of many of the world's more successful contstitutions, and some of the failed ones as bad examples.

John / Billybob

[Austin Willard Wright]

Simple! We will decide it for them. Our little brown brothers will only screw up if we actually let them have a choice.