Decision ‘08

The Best News in a While…

…and let’s hope it’s a precursor to even great news on Saturday. With the hat tip to the Instapundit, Iraqis have reached a deal on the Constitution that greatly increases its chance of passage:

The sides agreed to a measure stating that if the draft constitution is passed, the next parliament will be able to consider amendments to it that would then be put to a new referendum next year, Shiite and Sunni officials said.

A top Sunni negotiator, Ayad al-Samarraie of the Iraqi Islamic Party, said that if the current parliament approves the measure, “we will stop the campaign rejecting the constitution and we will call on Sunni Arabs to vote yes.”

Some other major Sunni parties were not present at the negotiations and it was not clear if they too would be willing to reverse their “no” campaigns.

But the announcement was the first break in the ranks of Sunni Arab leaders, who have been campaigning hard to defeat the constitution at the polls.

Ali al-Dabagh, a Shiite negotiator, said the sides agreed on adding four articles to the draft.

The central addition allows the next parliament, which will be formed in Dec. 15 elections, to form a commission that will have four months to consider changes to the constitution. The changes would be approved by the entire parliament, then a referendum would be held two months later.

Sunni Arabs are hoping to have a stronger representation in the next parliament and want to make major amendments to the constitution, particularly to water down the provisions for federalism, which Shiites and Kurds strongly support.

The other additions include a statement stressing Iraqi unity and another states that the Arabic language should be used in the Kurdistan region, along with Kurdish — issues important to the Sunni Arabs. The fourth underlines that former members of Saddam Hussein’s ousted, Sunni-led Baath Party will only be prosecuted if they committed crimes.

While the more drama-prone elements of the conservative base scream that the sky is falling because of the Miers nomination, an event of truly global importance takes place in a matter of days.

Priorities, anyone?…

3 Responses to “The Best News in a While…”

1 AcademicElephant Says:
October 11th, 2005 at 9:23 pm
Would such a scenario even be possible if the subject of your previous post had become president in 2000? Food for thought.
2 Mark Says:
October 11th, 2005 at 9:36 pm
No, indeed, I don’t think it would be possible…
3 mark, the lesser Says:
October 12th, 2005 at 5:21 pm
Gore would have dumped 100,000 into Afghanistan. He would have had to invest 500 billion to revamp the Country to start, and he would never have had an exit strategy. The terrian is not suitable for classic warfare. Sending mass troops to Afghanistan would have drawn every Jihadi in the ME. Special Forces and skilled soldiers are not easy targets. Regular army soldiers, because of their size, would have caused our casuaties to explode.

There are a lot of pundits out there who questioned troop levels in Afghanistan, but also decry the casualties in Iraq. Had we sent the troops they wanted, we would have three times the casulties in Iraq. Iraq has a source of revenue that will not force a continuuing financial commitment, afghanistan would have bankrupted us. It was Vietnam that never was.

The quagmire would have been on…

Rummy has never gotten the credit for saving this Country the fate that befell the Soviets, by keeping troop levels below 25,000.

By not sending 100,000, Rummy saved 5-15 thousand soldiers. Saved us from the disgrace of fighting a battle we just could never win.

Outsourcing, through bribes was the key…troop levels were not. Pure genius. thank you Secretary rumsfeld.