Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper has a sharp editorial on the political overtures that will be necessary to generate a constitutional modus vivendi in Iraq.
I’m working now to arrange a trip to Jordan and then on to Iraq in April. In Jordan I’ll give a series of presentations at a conference (which will include a substantial number of members of the newly elected Iraqi National Assembly) on individual rights, toleration, and constitution building, after which I’ll go on to Iraq and make some trips around the country to meet with classical liberal scholars and help them to promote classical liberal teaching, publishing, and policies in that country.
Iraq does face a tough set of challenges, thanks primarily to the British imperialists who carved up the country primarily in such a way as to make it hard to develop a singular national voice, therefore making it easy to control and highly easy to drill for oil. With the three main factions, each of which is split into further splinters, the only main hope for Iraq is that the divisions between Kurd, Shia, and Sunni lay the foundations for a pluralistic society that can counter the overwhelming governing influence the US already has.
Indeed, the election returns hold out the possibility that, since no one group can fully dominate the others, political bargaining will be necessary, which makes a peaceful modus vivendi much more likely.
Right, except for the Overwhelming Kurd-Shia influence, which the Sunni, already wont to be in control, resent.