The following editorial appeared in the Dallas Morning News Aug. 16:
The televised images reeked of failure: As the hours and then the minutes ticked away, the members of Iraq’s national assembly milled about, awaiting delivery of the nation’s new constitution from the panel responsible for its drafting. The rumors were no more comforting: Any draft was sure to leave gaping holes where there should have been provisions determining the status of women and of the Sunni minority.
These are fundamental matters, and Iraq’s inability to resolve them on schedule is cause for dismay. But, given what is at stake, assembly members were wise to vote themselves another week to strive for an accord.
Under the rules of the game, Shia delegates, who hold a majority of seats in the assembly, could have run roughshod over other factions. But such a constitution might well have been rejected at the polls, where the rules make it easier for a disgruntled minority to block it. With that possibility firmly in mind, taking a few extra days is no big deal.
That said, the big deals – the question of federalism and of Islam’s role in the new state – may prove impossible to resolve soon. The furious negotiations of recent days have yielded as many reversals as advances.
If history offers any comfort, perhaps it lies in the distant mists of our own national story. What few Americans probably appreciate is how difficult our forebears found it to forge a government that would endure. The first attempt, set out in the Articles of Confederation, foundered precisely because many former colonists – exactly like many Iraqis today – resisted vesting power in a central government.
Even our current Constitution, drafted as a replacement in 1787, contained compromises that are monstrous by today’s standards. Congress was forbidden to tamper with slavery for 20 years. Slaves’ only legal standing was that each was to count as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of apportioning congressional seats.
Democracy is habitually messy. It is often slow. It is never perfect. It justifies any amount of political toil. And it is certainly worth the investment of seven more days.
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