As Booman Tribune front-pager Patrick Lang has told us — in his Aug. 23 story “Better no Constitution…,” Part 2 and in his Aug. 21 story, “No Constitution Would be Better than an Islamic State” — the existing laws, from Saddam Hussein’s rule, afford more protections for outnumbered Sunnis, women, Christians and other minority groups in Iraq.
Juan Cole has written a new article for Salon:
“The Iraqi constitution: DOA?” [sub.]
Angry and marginalized, Sunnis are threatening to torpedo Iraq’s constitution. Disaster looms, and the Bush administration’s blunders are largely to blame.
See also Phillip Robertson’s touching article [sub.] in Salon on the death of culture in Baghdad in the conditions of guerrilla war.
And, reports Amy Goodman today for Democracy Now!, “Over the past 2 days some 100 Iraqis have been killed, a significant number of them in fighting among various religious factions.”
The fighting has spurred radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr to appear in public after his offices were hit by gunmen. Sadr and his Mehdi Army, have popular support in Iraq’s poor central provinces and are opposed to a federated Iraq putting Sadr as the same side of the majority of Sunnis. On Thursday, al Sadr’s supporters clashed with pro-constitution Shias of the Badr group, led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. al Sadr accused him of being responsible for the attacks.
Moqtada al Sadr: “I demand that brother Abdul Aziz al-Hakim make an official announcement condemning the aggression by his representatives and some extremists, against the office of the honourable martyr (his father, Sadr). We hope he and the brothers from the Badr Organisation will do.”
Meanwhile, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani also escaped an assassination attempt in which eight of his bodyguards were killed and 15 injured. This comes as Iraqi police found the bodies of 36 men near the Iranian border who were reportedly handcuffed and executed.
Susan, being the most humble person ever, and who ama I, after all but one citizen in our land of humility….:o) my honest opinion is that we have been sitting in the middle of this civil war for some time now. It is going to get worse and very soon, if all indications are right.
Just how would we feel if we were sitting ducks for both sides. That is how I see it. NO one can survive at that rate. I am but one sijmple nurse which is sitting on the sidelines of this and I may be just that but I ahve eyes wide open and can see the things that are happening.
The gov. can prostilize all they want about the God that the US is to be now, but I do not see it happening….havent all along. I do not have cia or any intel confidence, but I can see it falling so totally apart at this point! If we do not get out now, we are really doomed if we stay there. I could go on and on, but what is the use, I do not run the gov. wished I do, tho…:O)
Even with the terribly scant information filtered through to the American people through the utterly inept and corrupt American media, the people are getting the picture too about this war.
I feel terribly for the Iraqi people. All this for that f–king oil?
It’s why I go ballistic (ask my daughter) when I see a Hummer on the highway. The arrogance, the disregard for life that it takes to drive a monster like that when all the news — and all good, decent common sense — screams that we must conserve oil and find alternate energy.
Which reminds me … AmyGoodman did a MARVELOUSLY interesting segment on Wednesday on alternative fuels and cars …. it’s such fun to watch. She interviewed interesting experimenters who are creating such great alternative vehicles … Hybrid Cars: How Alternative Technologies Are Shaping the Future of Car Travel
Try to watch it if you can. If your system is too slow, you can read the transcript at the above link.
can you fuel up with the tank of Bono’s lear jet? I know, I know, they use different fuels. But the point still stands. Each person should do what they can to conserve energy. And driving a hummer is a failure in that regard. But every movie star and CEO who flies privately is guzzling enough fuel to power hundreds of Hummers for a year.
Bad Booman! Mentioning the B word.
The local paper had a great AP piece yesterday on how much it costs Bush to travel around these days …
i’ll see if i can find it. (The stupid local newspaper won’t print most articles on its site because it demands that people buy the damn paper, and you can’t even pay to view the articles… there are no archives … uhoh, another rant startin’.)
I found it. The WaPo carried the same story:
“Of All Gas Consumers, Bush May Be Biggest“
Boo, may I run that as a separate story … I’d like to change the title too:
Of All Gas Producers, Bush’s May Be Biggest
What do you think?
I don’t blame bush for guzzling gas, but it has a good hook and makes an important point.
The thing that drives me crazy is these Hollywood stars that complain about SUV’s and then fly from LA to New York twice a week on a charter jet.
blame Bush for guzzling gas? Why should he not be expected to set an example? Why should Bono or any other “star” behave differently than the alleged President of the United States? No one really believe it could make the slightest difference whether the National Psycho Idiot is in any particular place, or gets there sooner or later. The world would get a welcome respite if he’d take a slow boat to China without communications capability.
Anyway, Boo, thanks for yet another unfathomable opinion to chew over. I don’t know how I’ll amuse myself if you ever stop with the Stengelisms.
I don’t blame Clinton for getting a blow job. The President should be allowed to do certain shit just because he is the damn president. Flying around the country and giving stupid speeches is part of the deal. I am pretty unforgiving about Bush and agree that he should just quit and apologize. But for so long as he wants to continue to pretend to have a clue, I am not going to criticize him for doing what all Presidents do.
I understand yoru view point here, Booman; however, this one man and his group have outdone anyone else, IMHO. This one man and his group do not care! This one man and his group have been ont he go since day one. He has been out there flying around in AF1 always or using Marine1 to do likewise. He can not sit still for one whole week to get someplace to fly too or what ever…unless he is riding his bike….Whatever!!!! Three is no example to set for conservation on his or any to set…except me. I refuse to travel at great distance anymore to rebel against this gas we all consume. I am just praying all my family stays well and safe so I do not have to travel there to them. Ihave for some time refused to go to DC for my annual pilgramage and that is cause of many factors but gas prices are one of them. whether I fly or drive. Where are the others and their non willing wastfullness???!!! I do not see it at all.
have to do with Bush’s record energy use? Clinton’s blowjob was stupid and self-obsessed, but set no example that matters one way or another. I don’t care how many, or who, get blowed. I do care when an alleged president makes it clear that the energy crisis doesn’t matter compared to his “right” to fly around spewing crap.
I guess you can’t get over the idea that the US is special, and therefore its president has to be, too. More power to ya, I guess — somebody’s got to do it.
I never liked it when people complained about Clinton’s travel and I really don’t care about Bush’s. He could set an example by trading in his truck, I guess. But I don’t care about the Prez travelling. I care that he is a narco-terrorist.
then are you saying I should not care about that he travels tooo much? I also care about the “narco-terrorist” as well.
I simply care. That should be enough for you to get a drift as to what I was saying.
I was simply entering into conversation as to what wa smentioned t o the jet bono flew and the jet bush flew. What the hell! Have I misconstrued your jest or what? ..and this goes for Dave too. Why is what I have said so disturbing to you all?
Yup! That’s what first class sections and airports’ special VIP lounges are for … and it can’t be that their schedule is very often that tight that they must use their own jet.
It’s a vanity / status thing, imho. Just like those knuckleheads that drive around town here in their Hummers.
I give them the thumbs down — out my car window — every chance I get.
I still can’t over the fact that Bono and Geldof had to take a private jet to Portugal to accept those silly medals from the president of Portugal. There are no first-class flights they could have arranged to take? Come on.
From the AP story: “fuel costs for the largest plane in the Air Force One fleet have gone up dramatically _ from $3,974 an hour in fiscal 2004 to $6,029 per hour now, according to the Air Force.”
Let’s say, conservatively, that Bono/Geldof’s private jet is half the size of a Boeing 747 and uses half the fuel. That’s still a minimum of $6,000 for a one-hour trip to Portugal.
How much food and medicine would $12,000 buy? Was the use of money in that way more important than it going to starving, sick kids?
the cost of flying a charter jet is chump change compared to the relative value of a five minute speech on global television, propagated through the ‘net. It’s always cost-over-value. Soj’s diary explains the concept.
I have wondered about this for years now. This man has been the worst abuser of all and yes we can blame anyone who flies very often and just to get their job done when the phone has such accomidaties as of this date in time.
When I bought my last new car, I conssidered the new hybrid toyota. the price was just tooooooo much fo rme to buy into something I couldnt afford. why do they do that to us ppl when we could make a difference. I can not understand this for the life of me.
Bush has used more gas than anyone and it comes o ut of his mouth as well….flatuence is not a good thing either, coming out of the other end that it needs to be coming..:o)
According to a dear family friend (of yours Boo?), Professor Andras Hamori, Chair of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University (stated tongue in cheek, but as with all such jokes, truth is at it’s heart):
“If I were President I would encourage people to buy the biggest gas-guzzler possible and drive it 24 hours a day at 90 MPH. Using it up is the only realistic way to end dependence on [Saudi] Oil.”
He has a point, one that has not even been considered by Hummer-driving ‘assholes’. Yet the combination of tax breaks and fear have produced a culture which does just what he recommends.
Perhaps more effective would be to ‘Hussein’ the Saudi oil fields, as I suggested in response. To this we only smiled and said “Hussein knew what he was doing.”
Conservation will only postpone the economic crisis necessary to make alternative fuels a practical decision (which is the only time the gov’t will act).
The only real problem with gas guzzling is pollution, as I see it. But if not us now, then the Chinese, if not them, the Indians. This shit will burn and pollute and there is little we can to but speed up the process and make as much money off of it as possible on our way to renewable resource-based economies…
Oil+Gasoline first, then Coal+Natural Gas, then Methane(ew!)+bio-diesel, THEN and only then, Corn-o-hol and hydrogen. Even at that last stage, there has to be more – Hydrogen production requires more energy than it produces.
Get used to the idea that water-emitting cars will only be for the trendy and/or wealthy.
Last night the BBC reporter made a major point that had never occurred to me: This whole constitution mess (the one over there, I mean) is entirely the doing of the US, and no one else. Imposing a constitutional format was entirely the US’s demand. The process for generating this constitution was imposed by the US on Occupied Iraq.
Most importantly, the deadline that has now probably torpedoed the last slim chance for a less than horrific Iraq outcome is imposed by the US. Iraq never necessarily needed a constitutional form of government. Many successful democracies, including Britain, manage without one, and having one has not stopped the slow death of democracy that the US is currently experiencing.
The culture of the Middle East is to go slow, let things settle out, aim for consensus, make compromises until most participants are, if not onboard, at least not enraged. Debate and a quick vote are not necessarily workable in that culture. The deadline is not something the Iraqis demanded, nor is it of the least value for Iraqis. It was created by Bush solely for his own political purposes: to lay down a cover under which the US could retreat, draw down the troops, before the ’06 elections.
Like everything else about this occupation, the constitutional process and the deadline are just more shameless imperialist manipulation of a victim country for the sake of advancing a corrupt political agenda. I sympathize with the good intentions of the groups seeking to make Bush “answer” for his actions, but the time is long past for such gutless posing. Nothing short of impeachment and imprisonment for the criminals who planned, sold, and executed this invasion can suffice.
Very worthwhile post — you contributed a lot just then .
‘d like to ask Pat Lang what he thinks of the artificial insemination of a constitution on a war-ravaged Mid-East nation.
The “deadlines” are set out in UNSCR 1546, and include those for the constitution, elections, and termination of the mandate for the “multinational force”. The Iraqis supported the passage, and have been pushing for the process to stay on track. They are fully aware of the pressures dictated by deadlines, but (rightly) chose to move ahead to regain sovereignty.
That they have been so heavily involved in their own decision-making will go down in history as one of the most under-reported events of these times. It’s their country, as I have been “forcefully” writing for six months. They do not need babysitters, back-seat drivers, or arrogant Americans to determine their own fate.
BushCo, and most Americans will be surprised to learn they are a thinking, forward-looking people; and (massive understatement) are expert negotiators and traders. 90% of the “sticking points” are spoon-fed to an insatiable global media machine in an effort to promote each faction’s arguments.
Offhand I’d say forcing direct phone calls from the President of the United States, debt forgiveness in the multi-billion dollar range, 60 nations pledging support for rebuilding, and a few billions in the bank begs the question.
The Iraqis know exactly what they’re doing. And I suspect having fun watching the “greatest nation on earth” trying to dance on the head of pin.
who are “the Iraqis”? Certainly those who think they’d win power in a quick and arbitrary endpoint supported the deadlines. The US had no business setting ANY conditions, which it did. It’s only obligation was to get the fuck out and pay reparations for it’s crimes against humanity, and Iraq in particular.
I fervently agree that it’s their country, for better or for worse. If I understand you right, you seem to think that any constitution or regime allowed by the US could lead to independence. I think that’s astonishingly naive. No genuine independence was ever part of the plan.
“The Iraqis” are whoever they say they are, and they’ve done a good job of defining themselves in the draft constitution. [Available everywhere.]
The significant fact you seem to overlook is that the us can’t “allow” a damn thing anymore. Whether the United States of GW thought independence was part of the plan or not is a moot point. The United States is irrelevant to the process.
If the TNA met tomorrow and set their timetable for “termination of the multinational force”, the U.S. – and coalition of the billing – would have to leave. And yes, it’s that simple. We’re not in charge. Haven’t been since the election.
that you think would make “us” “have to leave”?
“We” were never legally in charge of anything. That didn’t prevent the massacre of 100,000+ Iraqis. A so-called independent government will provide cover for a draw-down, but won’t make the US banditocracy do anything it doesn’t want to.
You failed to mention the most important thing about the US imposition of this process: it real purpose is not to get someone elected here or there. It is to legitimate the resource and construction contracts doled out without Iraqi input during the occupation authority’s rule. end of story. This is why we imposed the timeline, and this is what will trigger a possibility of withdrawal in the minds (to be generous) of the administration and it’s corporatist masters.
the contracts were kind of filed in the “corrupt” folder. But certainly ongoing control of contracts and oil is the immediate goal.
That’s like putting a Martian in the ‘other animals’ folder.
…if I thought there was a ghost of chance of implementing your final sentence.
A ghost of a chance is still a chance.
You should try alcohol. Weed makes you wake up stupid.
What is “weed”? I am unfamiliar with the term. Sorry.
Where are you? I need to do some gardening before bed tonight, we should hook up.
I actually met this hippy the other day that said if we had converted to a hemp-based energy production economy we could have avoided the war. But he had obviously smoked all of his, so I left.
boys and any other neo-con nut-jobs have had their day at showing how to use US military force to improve the lives of the oppressed – this time in Iraq. Well that was one hell of a failure with death, destruction and mayhem abounding. Let us just hope that they never get the chance to try their failed experiment again. This is one lesson we must never forget. We cannot put Iraq back together again and America and Americans will suffer for this for a long time. However, let’s try to learn and make sure America is never led by war criminals, mass murderers, religious zealots and the generally insane ever again.
Unfortunately today I saw some no-brain from the Heritage foundation wanking on, on the BBC World Service, about how the Iraq experiment was going well and that the Iraqis were looking ahead to their freedom! I guess it will remain business as usual with Iran next.