“The Iraq version begins:
‘We the sons of Mesopotamia, land of the prophets, resting place of the holy imams, the leaders of civilisation and the creators of the alphabet, the cradle of arithmetic…’.
Lovely stuff. The more I read the Iraqi document, the more it seems a marvel of sophistication and, indeed, cunning.”
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I loved reading this piece, it was an uplift after a week of Katrina and the hundreds killed in the stampede in Iraq.
I wholeheartedly agree with Marks analysis, and plan to read the Iraq constitution now for myself…
Link for Iraq Constitution, courtesy of the New York Times!
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Quote from the Constitution:
August 28, 2005
Text of the Draft Iraqi Constitution
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The complete text of the final draft Iraqi Constitution, as translated from the Arabic by The Associated Press. Differences between this text and the version Aug. 22 are in parentheses:
“PREAMBLE
We the sons of Mesopotamia, land of the (messengers), prophets, resting place of the holy imams, the leaders of civilization and the creators of the alphabet, the cradle of arithmetic: on our land, the first law put in place by mankind was written; in our nation, the most noble era of justice in the politics of nations was laid down; on our soil, the followers of the prophet and the saints prayed, the philosophers and the scientists theorized and the writers and poets created.
Recognizing God’s right upon us; obeying the call of our nation and our citizens; responding to the call of our religious and national leaders (and our national forces and politicians) and the insistence of our great religious authorities and our leaders and our reformers, we went by the millions for the first time in our history to the ballot box, men and women, young and old, on Jan. 30, 2005, remembering the pains of the despotic band’s sectarian oppression; inspired by the suffering of Iraq’s martyrs — Sunni and Shiite, Arab, Kurd and Turkomen, and the remaining brethren in all communities — inspired by the injustice against the holy cities (and the south) in the popular uprising and (burnt with the sorrows of the mass graves, the marches and Dujail and others); recalling the agonies of the national oppression in the massacres of Halabja, Barzan, Anfal and against the Faili Kurds; inspired by the tragedies of the Turkomen in Bashir, and as in other parts of Iraq, (the people of the western region have suffered from the liquidation of its leaders, symbols, tribal leaders and displacing its intellectuals, so we worked hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder) to create a new Iraq, Iraq of the future, without sectarianism, racial strife, regionalism, discrimination and (elimination).
Terrorism and “takfir” (Editors Note: takfir means to declare someone an infidel) did not divert us from moving forward to build a nation of law. Sectarianism and racism did not stop us from marching together to strengthen our national unity, set ways to peacefully transfer power, adopt a manner to fairly distribute wealth and give equal opportunity to all.”

Jenny Hatch