Origins of Iraqi Constitution
Last June 30, the Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada published the latest draft of the Iraqi constitution that was then being negotiated by Iraqi politicians.[1] Its contents would have been enough to give former occupation authority chief Paul Bremer a heart attack.
The Iraqis - even those who were willing to cooperate with the United States - wanted, at least on paper, to build a Scandinavian-type welfare system in the Arabian desert, with Iraq\ufffds vast oil wealth to be spent on upholding every Iraqi\ufffds right to education, health care, housing, and other social services. \ufffdSocial justice is the basis of building society,\ufffd the draft declared. All of Iraq\ufffds natural resources would be owned collectively by the Iraqi people. Everyone would have the right to work and the state would be legally bound to provide employment opportunities to everyone. The state would be the Iraqi people\ufffds collective instrument for achieving development. (See key provisions in matrix below.)
When the US invaded Iraq, opposistion groups where already preparing a new constitution for the country. Unfortunatly, their proposal was totally contrary to the US goals of the invasion. Their plan was to nationalize all oil resources and use the money to build a North European style parlimentary democracy with a strong social support system. The US negotiators have spent much of the past year rewriting that plan and putting one that the US can favor into place.
It makes for an interesting reading of just what this administration considers important in a government. They where willing to cave on social, religious and moral issues all over the place, but pushed hard on corporate freedom.
Jay
