Iraq and the Spirit of 76

Fire of Liberty
Amir Taheri has a great piece in The Times that notes the constitution writing process in Iraq will be the first example of the Arab people coming together and forming an American style democracy but with an Iraqi flavor. Unlike past governmental our constitutional experiments in the Middle East that were formed our created from the top down, this constitution involved the people thus drawing the ire of the thugs and tyrants of the area that prefer rule by fiat or violence. It might not turn out to be another Switzerland or America but it will be closer than the current governments of the Middle East offer. (Excluding Israel and Turkey). I thought Taheri made a good point about the significance of the formulation of the constitution in Iraq when he wrote:

This time it was different. Talks on writing the new constitution started soon after liberation in 2003 with a series of town-hall-style meetings in which citizens could walk in and say their piece. For a nation terrorised into silence for half a century this was a moment of catharsis. The process was then formalised with the creation of a multiparty commission to come up with proposed drafts.

For months the shaping of a new constitution has been the theme of popular political debates throughout Iraq. More than 300 conferences were held on the subject throughout the country, allowing an estimated 50,000 people to express the views of countless cultural associations, trade unions, guilds, tribal groups and religious fraternities. IraqÂ’s newly created free media, including more than 150 newspapers and six television stations, almost all privately owned, have brought the debate to every home in the country.

The importance of what is happening in Iraq goes beyond its borders. If, as it now seems likely, Iraq does become a pluralist state committed to building a democracy, it would be hard for the despotic regimes in the region to defend a status quo that has kept much of the Middle East out of the post-Cold War trend towards reform and liberalisation.

The Iraqi constitutional debate has, thanks to the modern media, over-spilt into the whole of the Middle East and familiarised millions of people with terms and concepts regarded as taboo until the fall of Saddam Hussein'’s regime. People are now talking about human rights, democracy, multiparty politics, federalism, gender equality, the place of faith in society, consensus, governmental accountability and, of course, parliaments and elections. New words have been invented to express concepts excluded from the Arab political lexicon by the despots.

I'd say that the Iraqis know more about American/Western style democracy than the Doubting Thomas's and the MSM let on. So keep up the good work.