Iraq Puts Positive Face On Constitution Delay

WaPo reported After granting themselves an extra week to complete a draft constitution, Iraqi leaders Tuesday joined U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad in painting the missed deadline as an opportunity, not a failure.

Which it is. I am disappointed they did not make the deadline, but remember it took us six years to write our Constitution, and it did not contain a Bill of Rights; they had to be added as the first 10 ammendments.

Khalilzad acknowledged he was "personally disappointed" that Monday's deadline had not been met but said he was confident an agreement could be reached by Aug. 22. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari said political groups still had "some differences in views on details, but not on the main principles or major issues." But despite the positive public front, many participants in the negotiations said deep fissures remained among Iraq's main factions on topics as fundamental to the charter as the level of autonomy to be granted to regional governments and the role of Islam in determining law.

States rights vs the Power of the Federal government -- seems like we have had many US Supreme Court Decisions trying to nail that one down. And we have certainly had a number regarding religion also, resulting in a court that thinks the founders wanted Separation of Church and state, when all they said was that there could not be a specific church endorsed by the Federal government (on Independence Day, 1776, nine of the original thirteen colonies had official state churches, and in 1791, when the First Amendment was adopted, four of the fourteen states had official state churches, and they did not want the federal government to conflict with their state churches.

After voting for an extension Monday just before midnight, some informal discussions resumed Tuesday among leaders of the country's largest political blocs; broader negotiations were slated to resume at 10 a.m. Wednesday.