by James Glaser
March 3, 2004

With Washington having veto power over the Iraqi people's Constitution, the concept of freedom, democracy, and liberation become a falsehood.

How can anyone feel free if the conqueror of your nation, who has killed and maimed tens of thousands of your fellow citizens, can tell you what kind of government they will allow you to have?

This temporary constitution that Washington approved is a sham any way. It was only fashioned so that George Bush can tell the American people that he has handed over the responsibility of the Iraqi people to their own government. Remember this is an election year and Bush wants Iraq out of the picture.

This constitution was drawn up by people appointed from Washington to do the job. Not one of these people were elected or selected by the Iraqi population. They are what we call a "Puppet Regime." They are paid with American tax money and they are protected by the American Army.

This is the same thing we did in Afghanistan. Today the Puppet we put in office in Kabul, Harmid Karzi, is still guarded around the clock with American troops. They are guarding him from the Afghani People that would like to kill him.

Freedom and Liberation have to come from the inside of a country and we should realize that freedom does not come by decree.

Much of what this constitution does is put off hard decisions about Iraq, just so they can meet an American imposed deadline to turn power over to the Iraqi people by June 30th.

I never knew this, but Iraq has huge private armies whose existence isn't even controlled in this constitution. Some of these private "militia" are so large that they could threaten the national security force we are training. Two of these are the Pesh Merga, a Kurdish Army and the Badr Brigade, a private army under control of the Shiite political party.

The Kurds don't want to give up their forces as in the past they defended their people from Saddam. One American official was quoted in the New York Times saying," We are sympathetic to their fears and their concerns and therefore all the more grateful and all the more appreciative of their commitment to wanting to be part of a unified Iraq." The Americans know that no ethnic group in Iraq trusts the other ethnic groups enough to get rid of their armies. So, they let this constitution get away without addressing that issue.

The interim constitution designates Islam as the official religion of the Iraqi State and says Islam is "a source" of legislation, not "the primary source." The interpretation of that statement is confusing because there are several "Islams" in Iraq and which Islam are they talking about. Every ethnic group has its own religious ideals. The "Islam" of one group is heresy to another.

To make Iraq adopt a constitution and take on a government set up by the United States is not going to work. There has already been much talk about civil war breaking out and an unelected government does not have a standing with any group.

There are leaders in Iraq that want the citizens of their country to vote on the people who will write a constitution. They claim that would be the democratic thing to do. For some strange reason Washington can not agree with that.

For thirty years the people of Iraq have been under the rule of a dictator. A whole generation has forgotten what it is to be free, George Bush and his administration claim they want to bring these people liberation and freedom, but they have done neither. Bush and those telling him what to do look at Iraq as a liability and want to have it off of our front page before the election.

George Bush and Dick Cheney thought the Iraqi people would welcome us with flowers and parades, while heaping praise on the two of them for getting rid of Saddam. It didn't work out that way and now these two want to wash their hands of the whole affair. So they picked a group of Iraqi exiles and local leaders they could control and pushed whatever they thought would float. They now tell us the Iraqi people are on their way to self government.

All they have to do is put everything off until after the November election and then who really cares if a civil war breaks out? These people are only Muslims after all.