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My editor at UPI has just accepted this for publication tomorrow. This is a "Special to Free Republic." Because of a change this week in UPI's procedures, neither the UPI URL nor Drudge will bring this article up.

I think Freepers will find this interesting. It is a better analysis of the necessary framework than anything that has yet appeared in the print and broadcast media. The best prior piece is from George Will on 24 April, but his was too focused on the example of the US Constitution to the exclusion of lessons from constitutions of other nations.

Let me know what you think.

J / BB

1 posted on 04/27/2003 7:57:47 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
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To: Congressman Billybob
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.
2 posted on 04/27/2003 8:16:19 PM PDT by sackofcatfood
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To: Congressman Billybob
>> Turkey seeks to encroach on northern Iraq

You're influenced by creative news sources. Turkey had all along lobbied for the preservation of Irak.. In fact, you might say that she has had some success..

Too bad you had to do this..
3 posted on 04/27/2003 8:18:09 PM PDT by a_Turk (Lookout, lookout, the candy man..)
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To: Congressman Billybob
Good read. Thanks.
4 posted on 04/27/2003 8:26:23 PM PDT by Imperialist
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To: Congressman Billybob
Excellent article. I appreciate your posting since constitutions are a subject of great personal interest to me (no I'm not a lawyer but a physicist).

If I may, however, at the risk of sounding like a Clymer, I hesitantly point out one submicroscopic fly in the ointment....Madagascar.

5 posted on 04/27/2003 8:27:10 PM PDT by nevergiveup (I AM that guy from Pawtucket.)
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To: Congressman Billybob
Good stuff. What do you know of the recent experiences in Eastern Europe with recovering from decades of despotism? Is there a particularly apt example that Iraq could use as a guide?
7 posted on 04/27/2003 8:38:24 PM PDT by Nick Danger (The liberals are slaughtering themselves at the gates of the newsroom)
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To: Congressman Billybob; sheltonmac
1958: The merger of Syria and Egypt into the "United Arab Republic," the overthrow of the pro-U.S. King Feisal II in Iraq by nationalist military officers, and the outbreak of anti- government/anti-U.S. unrest in Lebanon lead the U.S. to dispatch 70 naval vessels, hundreds of aircraft, and 14,000 Marines to Lebanon to preserve "stability." The U.S. threatens to use nuclear weapons if the Lebanese army resists. And to prevent an Iraqi move into the oilfields of Kuwait, the U.S. draws up secret plans for a joint invasion of Iraq with Turkey. The plan is shelved after the Soviet Union threatens to intervene.

Once

1960: U.S. works to covertly undermine the new government of Iraq by supporting anti- government Kurdish rebels and by attempting, unsuccessfully, to assassinate Iraq's leader, Abdul Karim Qassim, an army general who had restored relations with the Soviet Union and lifted the ban on Iraq's Communist Party

Twice

1963: U.S. supports a coup by the Ba'ath party to overthrow the Qassim regime, including by giving the Ba'ath names of communists to murder. Soon after the U.S.-backed coup, Saddam Hussein becomes the head of the Ba'ath party. According to one account, "Armed with the names and whereabouts of individual communists, the national guards carried out summary executions. Communists held in detention...were dragged out of prison and shot without a hearing... [B]y the end of the rule of the Ba'ath, its terror campaign had claimed the lives of an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 communists."

Three times

1973-1975: U.S. supports Kurdish rebels in Iraq in order to strengthen Iran and weaken the then pro-Soviet Iraqi regime. When Iran and Iraq cut a deal, the U.S. withdraws support from the Kurdish rebels, denies the Kurds refuge in Iran, and stands by while the Iraqi government kills many Kurdish people.

Four times

September 1980: Iraq invades Iran with tacit U.S. support, starting a bloody eight-year war. The U.S. supports both sides in the war--"tilting" to one side or another at various times-- in order to prolong the war and weaken both sides, while trying to draw both countries into the U.S. orbit. The U.S. opposes UN action against the invasion, removes Iraq from its list of "terrorist" nations, allows U.S. arms to be transferred to Iraq, provides Iraq with intelligence on Iran, economic aid, and political support, and encourages its Gulf allies to lend Iraq over $30 billion for its war effort. Meanwhile, the U.S. also provides Iran with arms.

Five times

And I guess the sixth one's the charm, eh? No matter how much neocons cheer on a 'Constitutional Republic' in Iraq, especially considering this nation doesn't even have one anymore (and hasn't for many years), it just won't work. No, it will amount to this government helping to establish some sort of democracy in Iraq, that will eventually be used to establish another dictatorship that, as history shows, this nation of states will have to 'fix' within a generation or two.

Sorry Congressman that I disagree with you. I truly wish the people of Iraq luck but it is no longer any of our business. We should wash our hands of it and come home. Especially considering we'll be back there in 30 years no matter how much work is done now. Cynical outlook maybe, but at least it's the truth. The theocracy that will come is going to be three times the nightmare to Israel that Hussein ever could have been. We may just be helping create Israel's worst enemy yet. And all the while, Saudi Arabia, who produced 15 of the 19 hijackers, is still called our ally

8 posted on 04/27/2003 8:39:16 PM PDT by billbears (Deo Vindice)
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To: Congressman Billybob
Very nice article. I pray there are enough big-picture Iraqi's involved in the process to pull it off. Time will tell.
11 posted on 04/27/2003 9:01:14 PM PDT by What Is Ain't
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To: Congressman Billybob
Excellent piece. However, don't the Japanese dispute ownership of some of their former northern islands with the Russians who now control such? Even they have some arbitrary borders.
12 posted on 04/27/2003 9:07:33 PM PDT by JohnBovenmyer
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To: Congressman Billybob
Excellent editorial comment. Cogent argument. Well reasoned. Very well written. Must say I am in agreement with most of your analysis. However, Iraq may soon stumble into internecine political warfare. Hard-core fundamentalist Muslims are not interested in "nation building" unless an Islamic state emerges. Iraq is surrounded by Islamic states licking their lips over potentials and possibilities. And Iraqi oil.

Winning the "hearts and minds" of Iraqis will prove to be a daunting, if not impossible, undertaking - - that Americans will grow weary of in a few months.

13 posted on 04/27/2003 9:42:45 PM PDT by ex-Texan (primates capitulards toujours en quete de fromage!)
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To: Congressman Billybob
Very interesting article, on a subject I had been wondering about. But one question remains: What's a "supramajority"? Is that bigger or smaller than a "supermajority"?
14 posted on 04/27/2003 11:49:52 PM PDT by jennyp (http://crevo.bestmessageboard.com)
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To: Congressman Billybob
BUMP
16 posted on 04/28/2003 5:15:16 AM PDT by Constitution Day
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To: Congressman Billybob
Thanks for your article. Bump for later read...off to work.
17 posted on 04/28/2003 5:27:37 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: Congressman Billybob
Well done! What are the odds that one of the "provinces" that are established will eventually want to break away and form their own country? Do you think this possibility will be addressed in their Constitution?
18 posted on 04/28/2003 5:30:17 AM PDT by airborne
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To: *Old_North_State; **North_Carolina; mykdsmom; 100%FEDUP; 2ndMostConservativeBrdMember; ~Vor~; ...
Congressman Billybob / NC ping!
Please FRmail me if you want to be added to or removed from this North Carolina ping list.
19 posted on 04/28/2003 5:52:59 AM PDT by Constitution Day
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To: Congressman Billybob
This article is a must read for every single person involved in establishing a new government for Iraq, Congressman Billybob. Somehow, you have got to get this article in the hands of every "nation builder" or would-be "nation builder" in Iraq -- both US, our Allies and the Iraqis.

And you are historically and philosophically correct in suggesting that the UN not be a part of the process. If I were in charge, no UN rep would be allowed in Iraq, ever!

[And in keeping with that philosophy, let's banish the UN from the US, too!]

I particularly appreciate (being a History major, myself) your thesis that the many good and bad examples of man's previous attempts to establish governments should be heeded as the "new Iraq" is formalized.

If I may be so bold as to paraphrase (attribution, anyone?):

"Those who ignore past hisorical mistakes will repeat them."

And, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing we have always done and expecting a different outcome."

Bravo Zulu, Congressman!
20 posted on 04/28/2003 5:54:08 AM PDT by Taxman
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To: Congressman Billybob; First_Salute; joanie-f
Let me know what you think.

It towers above everything else of yours that I have read here on FR. Just superb.

For an old redneck, you're not so dumb ;-)

29 posted on 04/28/2003 7:30:30 AM PDT by snopercod
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To: Congressman Billybob
Any successful constitution for Iraq is going to have to guarantee that any money gained from Iraqi oil reserves (through either taxes or a more socialist "nationalization" of the resources) must be distributed by census, proportionally, to all of the regions of Iraq so they can not be used by any majority against a minority or to enrich any one group.
34 posted on 04/28/2003 9:06:37 AM PDT by Question_Assumptions
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To: Congressman Billybob
Bump and thanks for the early release. Love your stuff....
35 posted on 04/28/2003 9:08:03 AM PDT by eureka! (Bless our Troops and Allies and the freed Iraqis and d*mn the complicit CNN to ratings h*ll....)
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To: Congressman Billybob
Whatever happens the United States must not allow an Islamic government to be installed, or we'll be back to square #1 again!
38 posted on 04/28/2003 10:07:39 AM PDT by Destructor
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To: Congressman Billybob
It took the United States less than a year to write its first constitution. But that constitution, called the Articles of Confederation, failed utterly within eleven years for political and economic reasons. That failure led five states to call the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. In turn, that Convention drafted the Constitution which, as amended, has remained in place longer than any other constitution ever written for any other nation in history.

The US provided in those events another critical example for those who will write the new Iraqi constitution. They should pay attention to the failure of the first American constitution.

There is no room for constitutional failure in Iraq. Its first effort must be successful. It does not have the luxury of a second chance or more, as the US and most other nations have had. If the first Iraqi constitution fails, Turkey's influence will reach in from the north, Syria's from the west, and Iran's from the east. Iraq will then have a tripartite dictatorship to replace the single one from Hussein. The historical example here is Lebanon.

Well, Congressman Billybob, now you went and did it.
I agreed with all you wrote until I got to that last paragraph.

Then I realized that you left a few things out.
I don't think it was crummy editing.

The first US Constitution was written in a year and failed.
The second one which did not fail took how long?
Louder.... I can't hear you.

That's right 4 years!
And that was amomg states and people who had been "talking about it" for 15 years!.
And on top of all that, and after all that time, they had to cobble together the last bit of an afterthought called the "Bill of Rights"..

Now then, I ask you... You say two years for Iraq to do it is not unreasonable? It would be a fripping miracle!
You think?

From the time Cornwallis surrendered in 1781 to the start of the ratification process for the new Constitution in the US was 10 years.

Anybody who will not avoid looking at reality in Iraq must conclude that some sort of rule of law must be imposed by an outside party while the various tribes, factions and Saddam wannabes sort themselves out.
And I agree absolutely that if the theocracy has a role in the process all bets are off. The only remaining question then is just how long it will be before they get their next deserved butt-kicking.

41 posted on 04/28/2003 11:46:50 AM PDT by Publius6961 (Californians are as dumm as a sack of rocks)
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