Pessimism Clouds Constitution's Prospects

As the Iraqi National Assembly considers the latest draft of the country's proposed constitution, Tuesday's headlines in Baghdad suggested a capital city close to meltdown.

The minister of electricity was fired, said Al-Bayyna, a weekly paper published by the Hezbollah movement, because power is off 11 times more often than it is on. The power shortage caused a water shortage and completely halted oil exports from the southern part of the country, according to translations in the Iraqi Press Monitor.

And the independent daily Addustour added that radical cleric Moqtada Sadr has called for a silent protest against the country's poor public services.

About the only good news was Addaawa's report that the first phase of the war crimes investigation against Saddam Hussein is complete. But that was matched by Al Mashriq's story that the National De-Baathification Committee, which is supposed to purge the country of Hussein's influence, has been shut down.

This portrait of Iraq today, compiled by Iraqis, underscores the pessimism, among Iraqi and non-Iraqi observers in Baghdad, that has greeted the news that the National Assembly will vote Thursday on the new national charter.

The combination of two missed deadlines, continuing violence, the very visible role of U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, and the objections of secular Sunnis and women's rights groups explains why the reaction from Baghdad falls short of the positive statements emanating from Washington.

"There is no doubt the U.S. war on Iraq is still raging and that the boots of foreign troops are running the country rather than a national government," wrote columnist Fatih Abdulsalam Tuesday in Azzaman, one of the city's biggest circulation dailies. "Is it right then to write a constitution under such circumstances?

"Imagine the Germans or the Japanese writing a new constitution while battles were still raging across their countries and their major cities were under the mercy of violence and insurgent attacks."

"But that is exactly what is happening in Iraq. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, who invaded the country, realize the war they started is still on but act as if was not," he wrote.

"The point is how to stop this war and bring peace and stability to the country. We are afraid a constitution written under such circumstances will not do it.

"In that case we will be left with the only alternative: a timetable for a quick departure of U.S. and British occupation troops," Abdulsalam concluded.

Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar complained last week that "the US ambassador to Iraq attends all the constitution meetings and gives the Iraqi stakeholders some printed 'suggestions' to break the deadlock, while the Iraqi resistance's assassinations and attacks are getting stronger and more effective."