Powell sets deadline of 6-months for Iraqi Constitution

[IrateCitizen]

What does everyone think about this? As much as I distrust anything that this administration puts out there, could this at least be some sort of acknowledgement of world opinion after the UN debacle?

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/26/international/middleeast/26DIPL.html

Powell Gives Iraq 6 Months to Write New Constitution
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN

Published: September 26, 2003


Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, responding to demands from France and others for a rapid timetable for self-rule in Iraq, said yesterday that the United States would set a deadline of six months for Iraqi leaders working under the American-led occupation to produce a new constitution for their country.

The constitution, which would spell out whether Iraq should be governed by a presidential or parliamentary system, would clear the way for elections and the installation of a new leadership next year, Mr. Powell said. Not until then, he added, would the United States transfer authority from the American-led occupation to Iraq itself.

"We would like to put a deadline on them," he said in an interview with editorial writers, editors and reporters for The Times, referring to the Iraqi task of writing a constitution. "They've got six months. It'll be a difficult deadline to meet, but we've got to get them going."

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[Paschall]

1. Hmm

"Military officers also said they faced a very short deadline — days rather than weeks — before they had to decide whether to call up more National Guard and Reserve troops. ...

"Yesterday, Mr. Powell went further, saying that remnants of Saddam Hussein's government and his Baath Party would lead a rebellion against such a government.

"'These are ex-Baathists,' Mr. Powell said of those carrying out attacks. 'They would go after an illegitimate government that does not enjoy the will of the people, just as easily as they would go after us.'"

But Shrub said the tyrant was gone and, when Saddam's sons were killed, he said the regime would never return. Was he lying, Colin?

[teryang]

2. Meaningless

Projecting what will be in six months in a country gripped by civil war is an exercise in futility.