Sunnis threaten civil war as Iraq constitution deadline extended

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Guynemer


That would be so awesome if true.

You're the doctor. What would you guess? Keep in mind that it would have to be something shameful for them to keep it secret.

[Guynemer]

I think it's totally possible.

There's just no real evidence to suggest anything specific.

For instance, instead of an STD, perhaps it was autoerotic asphixiation?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
I think it was an STD.

That's the rumor that's been spread around in order to try and discredit him, but the only STD people die from anymore is AIDS. His decline was rather rapid.

[Az]

His decline was hardly rapid, but I don't think it's AIDS.

I think it's totally possible.

There's just no real evidence to suggest anything specific.

For instance, instead of an STD, perhaps it was autoerotic asphixiation?

Ahhh, I got it! Colon Rapture from a 18'' dildo!

[Imran Siddiqui]

It could be massive drug use (also forbidden in Islam).

[Az]

It could be massive drug use (also forbidden in Islam).

The assassins think otherwise.

Although the mental piccie of Young Hip Arafat ((C) Imran 2004) doing lines of Cocaine in Beiruit is frucking awesome.

[Spiffor]

Clearly, you guys need to bring back your arafatars

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Az
Say, did they find out what had he died from, in the end?

some "unknown disease" ,meaning the hospital was protecting something embarassing in all likelyhood.

[Az]

Man, I didn't have an Arafatar for ages.

[Spiffor]

You know you want to

[Spiffor]

Aren't they cute?

[Az]

Grandpa Smurf!

[Sava]

what is the big deal with these deadlines anyways? they're meaningless!!!

if the US really wanted to have a deadline that would get **** accomplished they would say, "okay get the constitution done by 9-01-05 or we put Saddam back in power!"

[Az]

That would be awesome.

[MOBIUS]

What would you rather have?

Saddam in power or an Islamic Republic of Iraq?

Is Iraq moving, inch by inch, towards becoming an Islamic republic? it is a prospect that is as unsettling for many Iraqis as it is for George Bush in the White House.

Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq was a centralised and largely secular state.

Now, if the Shia religious parties get their way, it will be a decentralised state with a pronounced Islamic identity.

The draft of the new constitution describes Islam as "a main source" of legislation and stipulates that no law may contradict Islamic principles.

It also says a group of provinces is entitled to form a "region", which can then expect a specified share of the national budget.

Federalism

All this amounts to a radical change, and inevitably it is arousing strong passions.

The two groups who dominate the new Iraq - the Kurds and the Shia religious parties - have an obvious interest in breaking with the past.

Iraq's Sunni neighbours find all of this troubling. The fear is that a weak multi-ethnic, multi-confessional state will go the way of Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s - and descend into civil war

The Kurds want to cement, and if possible extend, the autonomy they have enjoyed in the north for over a decade.

The Shia religious parties want to reverse the secularising policies of Saddam, and they want the mainly Shia south to get a bigger slice of the area's oil wealth.

Some Shia are even calling for a "super-region" stretching from Baghdad to the border with Kuwait and embracing the country's biggest oilfields.

This kind of federalism - with an autonomous Kurdistan in the north and a big oil-rich Shia "region" in the south - leaves the minority Sunni Arabs appalled.

They fear being left with a rump mini-state bereft of oil. They also fear the eventual break-up of the country.

At the same time, secular-minded Iraqis - whether Sunni, Shia or Kurd - are deeply concerned about the direction the country is taking.

In many ways, Iraq is already dramatically different from the place it was just a few years ago.

Mixed marriages between Sunni and Shia, once taken for granted, are becoming problematic.

In many parts of the country, women dare not walk bare-headed in the street.

And reports from parts of the lawless north-west paint a grim picture of Taleban-style rule by radical Sunni militants.

Worried neighbours

Iraq's Sunni neighbours find all of this troubling.

There is no tradition in the Arab world of a successful decentralised state.

The fear is that a weak multi-ethnic, multi-confessional state will go the way of Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s - and descend into civil war.

Sunni rulers in Riyadh, Amman, Cairo and elsewhere believe the one country to benefit from the disintegration of Iraq is Shia Iran.

George Bush, meanwhile, is faced with some unpalatable choices.

He is determined to stick to a tight political timetable which would enable him to start withdrawing US troops from Iraq next year.

But will his rush to come up with an "exit strategy" force him to abandon the aspiration to create a modern secular democracy out of the ashes of the Saddam dictatorship?

More mistakes by the Bush administration in the 'pipeline'? Surely not...