Sunnis Still Seek Charter Changes

NYT reported Sunni Arab political leaders condemned a draft of Iraq's proposed constitution handed to them on Saturday and made last-ditch efforts to revise the document even as Shiite and Kurdish leaders insisted that it would be published without substantial changes. The Shiite leaders said late Saturday night that they were already planning the details of the ceremony where the final document will be received by the National Assembly on Sunday afternoon.

It is unfortunate that the Sunnis are not happy, but that is what they get for boycotting the election.

...."We still have some hope that we could reach something," said Saleh Mutlak, a leading Sunni member of the constitutional committee, referring to the ongoing struggles to reach agreement with his Shiite and Kurdish colleagues. "If we reach it, fair enough. If we don't, then they have to take responsibility for what happens if this constitution is passed." Asked what the consequences of such a rupture might be, Mr. Mutlak said: "The violence will go up, the hope among the people will go down. And the extremists will be the ones who are in control of the country."

the Sunnis were used to ruleing the entire country through the use of force and violence. They stupidly boycotted the election, depriving themselves of adequate representation. They were given a gift of more representatives than they were entitled to, and were then disappointed that they did not prevail on everything they wanted

A Sunni member of the constitutional drafting committee, Mahmoud al-Mashadani, said he favored approving the document. But he added that he feared he could become a target of more militant Sunnis if he were to speak out about it, particularly if the Muslim Scholars Association, an influential Sunni group, were to denounce the charter. "Who is going to protect me when I'm walking in the streets after that?" he said, adding that he had just heard a Sunni imam denouncing those who supported the constitution as infidels

Interesting. The term infidel is supposted to mean non-Muslim, and now a Sunni imam uses the term against other Sunnis, that just dont happen to agree with him.

.... Two dozen Sunni sheiks in Falluja, west of the capital, said Saturday that more than 5,000 leaflets had been distributed in and around the town in the past two weeks warning people not to vote in the constitutional referendum in October. Although the leaflets did not say those who voted would be killed, that is what the residents believe, the sheiks said

The Sunnis are really bright. They boycotted an election which meant they did not have normal representation in the constitutional writing commission, then rather than voting against the constitution they will boycott the referendum, meaning it is more likely to be approved.

.... Some Sunni members of the constitutional committee said they conceded that the National Assembly would probably accept the document on Sunday. If that takes place, many Sunnis will declare the current National Assembly illegitimate, because the repeated extensions of the constitutional deadline have violated Iraq's transitional law, said Kamal Hamdoun, the president of the Iraqi Bar Association and a leading Sunni. Others said they were considering a campaign to urge their fellow Sunnis to vote no when the constitution comes up for a referendum in October, and even making plans for how to proceed if the constitution fails

Even more interesting - delays were made to try to allow the Sunnis to negotiate changes, and now they will say the extensions that tried to allow them time to get changes they wanted now makes the constitution invalid.

.... In recent days the Sunnis won concessions with American help on several issues, a senior American official said. But the Sunnis returned with more demands, and the Americans withdrew in frustration.

When you are being given a gift, you should select the demands that are most important to you, and not keep asking for more and more.

Ezra Klein blogged What's interesting here, aside from the roadmap to oblivion that's being laid out, is the Sunni's frank admission that the cost of an unwelcome constitution will be a lot of lives. We're not dealing, at least publicly, with a Sunni establishment that wants peaceful compromise and a Sunni insurgency that wants to detonate the country, we're dealing with a scared minority entirely willing to launch a long-term, low-grade guerrilla war to eventually achieve the outcomes they seek. And since neither the Kurds nor the Shi'ites are willing to write the constitution that the Sunnis want, I don't really see how you prevent a nationalist Sunni insurgency from existing well into the future.

A week or two ago, I compared Iraq's drafting of the constitution to the Founding Fathers attempting the same thing, except with newly freed and politically empowered Blacks and Native-Americans fielding representatives in the room. I think I was mostly right, save for one thing. I forgot to mention that the Blacks are heavily, heavily armed.

Josh Marshall blogged Did the mainstream media fool you into thinking that yesterday wasn't a great day in the history of Iraqi constitution writing?