Like America From 1781-1787, Iraq Is In Its "Critical Period"
By Mary Mostert (02/21/05)
Yesterday in Iraq, three suicide bombers killed themselves and at least 30 Shiite worshippers during a Shiite Holy day during a procession and at 2 different mosques.
As usual, The story has been reported by the media as a meaningless violent episode and the body count. However, I noted something a little different in the Washington Post this time. The lead story, of course, gave all the bloody details. But a side story for the first time seemed to actually report of the REAL issue at hand forging a unified nation after millions of courageous Iraqis risked their lives to go to the polls and VOTE on January 30th.
In an article titled Allawi sees disaster if Iraqis fail to unite Anthony Shadid quoted interim Prime Minister Allawi as saying: If the objective of national unity is missed, if the objective of national reconciliation is overlooked, then this will definitely spell out disaster.
Following the blast, according to another Post story, on the back pages of the paper, Shiite leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim in a sermon at another mosque, called on Iraqi Shiites to unite under the banner of the newly elected National Assembly. The mostly Shiite United Iraqi Alliance won 48 percent of the vote and controlled a majority of seats in the 275-seat parliament. Al-Hakim said:
I address all Iraqis of all national, religious affiliations. I call upon them to unite to confront all conspiracies against Iraq, al-Hakim said. I want to confirm to all that the Iraq we want is a secure Iraq, an Iraq in which all people without exception feel justice and equality. Yes, yes for unity.
Among the Kurds, who have generally not been reported much at all in the American media, except for stories emphasizing previous Kurdish demands for a separate nation, founding the new Iraq on principles that lead to unity also are being expressed. The Kurdish Media website quoted Sami Shursh, the unofficial minister of culture within, Massud Barzanis Kurdistan Democratic Party, as saying: What Kurds want is a republican regime founded on the principle of rotation of power, with a parliamentary system, a separation of powers and a separation of religion and the state."
After 2 years of research for my Banner of Liberty book series on the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution covering the years between 1753 and 1794, I am really amazed with the similarity with what Americans went through and what the Iraqis are now going through. The six years following the defeat of Cornwallis in 1781 to the convening of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 are called the Critical Period in American history. The Iraqis are in their Critical Period between liberation and founding a viable free nation.
During that period, it became very obvious to George Washington, James Madison and others that the Articles of Confederation that lacked both a national executive and a national judiciary were leading to anarchy.
In Iraq today most of the people are Muslim. However, as we see, Islam is just as fractured and argumentative among its various sects as were Christians in America in the late 1700s. Those who today argue that America was founded on Christian principles forget that there was, and still is, a huge debate going on among the various Christian churches as to what is considered Christian. Nothing illustrates the real conflict among Muslim nations more clearly than the bombing of Mosques to kill fellow Muslims that is taking place in Iraq today.
Terrorists who are bombing Mosques to kill fellow Muslims want to set up an Islamic republic in Iraq. Those on the other side, the Kurds, who are mostly Sunni Muslims, oppose an Islamic republic. From what my sources, some from inside Iraq, are telling me, many of the bombers, are coming from Saudi Arabia. The main Islamic sect in Saudi Arabia is a group that followed a mid-1700s Islamic reformer named Abd al-Wahhab, who argued against some practices that had developed among Muslims, much as Martin Luther argued against some practices that had developed in Rome among the Christians.
Since few Americans know much about the various sects of Islam, it has become increasingly common to blame one or another of the Islamic sects, the Koran or Muslims in general for terrorism. Many point out that ALL the 9/11 terrorists were Muslims and 15 of the 19 were from Saudi Arabia; therefore, the group behind the terrorism was the Saudis or the Wahhabists. Many Americans cannot see there could POSSIBLY be unity in Iraq among such radically different groups of people.
However, that is exactly what many Europeans believed in the 1780s when the Americans were trying to write a constitution in Philadelphia. The British, especially, thought they would fail and were preparing to step in and re-establish the authority of King Richard III when it happened. Many could not see how the Quakers and the Puritans in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts and the Catholics in Maryland and the deists like Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine, headed by Church of England Pohick Churchsvestryman, George Washington, could EVER unite sufficiently to create a nation.
But, they did. They did, largely because enough leaders in the 13 squabbling colonies heeded a letter sent to each of the governors of the 13 states placing describing the great opportunities for the future if they would just recognize the four things he considered essential to the well-being even to the existence of the United States as an independent power:
1. An indissoluble Union of the States under one federal head
2. A sacred regard for public justice
3. The adoption of a proper peace establishment and
4. The prevalence of a pacific and friendly disposition among the people of the United States which will induce them to forget their local prejudices and policies and make those mutual concessions which are requisite to the general prosperity. That would, he pointed out, require at times them to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest of the community.
Perhaps these days we Americans need to work on that pacific and friendly disposition and stop attacking one another, if we want others to follow our founding fathers political ideals.
http://www.americandaily.com/article/6874
By Mary Mostert (02/21/05)
Yesterday in Iraq, three suicide bombers killed themselves and at least 30 Shiite worshippers during a Shiite Holy day during a procession and at 2 different mosques.
As usual, The story has been reported by the media as a meaningless violent episode and the body count. However, I noted something a little different in the Washington Post this time. The lead story, of course, gave all the bloody details. But a side story for the first time seemed to actually report of the REAL issue at hand forging a unified nation after millions of courageous Iraqis risked their lives to go to the polls and VOTE on January 30th.
In an article titled Allawi sees disaster if Iraqis fail to unite Anthony Shadid quoted interim Prime Minister Allawi as saying: If the objective of national unity is missed, if the objective of national reconciliation is overlooked, then this will definitely spell out disaster.
Following the blast, according to another Post story, on the back pages of the paper, Shiite leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim in a sermon at another mosque, called on Iraqi Shiites to unite under the banner of the newly elected National Assembly. The mostly Shiite United Iraqi Alliance won 48 percent of the vote and controlled a majority of seats in the 275-seat parliament. Al-Hakim said:
I address all Iraqis of all national, religious affiliations. I call upon them to unite to confront all conspiracies against Iraq, al-Hakim said. I want to confirm to all that the Iraq we want is a secure Iraq, an Iraq in which all people without exception feel justice and equality. Yes, yes for unity.
Among the Kurds, who have generally not been reported much at all in the American media, except for stories emphasizing previous Kurdish demands for a separate nation, founding the new Iraq on principles that lead to unity also are being expressed. The Kurdish Media website quoted Sami Shursh, the unofficial minister of culture within, Massud Barzanis Kurdistan Democratic Party, as saying: What Kurds want is a republican regime founded on the principle of rotation of power, with a parliamentary system, a separation of powers and a separation of religion and the state."
After 2 years of research for my Banner of Liberty book series on the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution covering the years between 1753 and 1794, I am really amazed with the similarity with what Americans went through and what the Iraqis are now going through. The six years following the defeat of Cornwallis in 1781 to the convening of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 are called the Critical Period in American history. The Iraqis are in their Critical Period between liberation and founding a viable free nation.
During that period, it became very obvious to George Washington, James Madison and others that the Articles of Confederation that lacked both a national executive and a national judiciary were leading to anarchy.
In Iraq today most of the people are Muslim. However, as we see, Islam is just as fractured and argumentative among its various sects as were Christians in America in the late 1700s. Those who today argue that America was founded on Christian principles forget that there was, and still is, a huge debate going on among the various Christian churches as to what is considered Christian. Nothing illustrates the real conflict among Muslim nations more clearly than the bombing of Mosques to kill fellow Muslims that is taking place in Iraq today.
Terrorists who are bombing Mosques to kill fellow Muslims want to set up an Islamic republic in Iraq. Those on the other side, the Kurds, who are mostly Sunni Muslims, oppose an Islamic republic. From what my sources, some from inside Iraq, are telling me, many of the bombers, are coming from Saudi Arabia. The main Islamic sect in Saudi Arabia is a group that followed a mid-1700s Islamic reformer named Abd al-Wahhab, who argued against some practices that had developed among Muslims, much as Martin Luther argued against some practices that had developed in Rome among the Christians.
Since few Americans know much about the various sects of Islam, it has become increasingly common to blame one or another of the Islamic sects, the Koran or Muslims in general for terrorism. Many point out that ALL the 9/11 terrorists were Muslims and 15 of the 19 were from Saudi Arabia; therefore, the group behind the terrorism was the Saudis or the Wahhabists. Many Americans cannot see there could POSSIBLY be unity in Iraq among such radically different groups of people.
However, that is exactly what many Europeans believed in the 1780s when the Americans were trying to write a constitution in Philadelphia. The British, especially, thought they would fail and were preparing to step in and re-establish the authority of King Richard III when it happened. Many could not see how the Quakers and the Puritans in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts and the Catholics in Maryland and the deists like Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine, headed by Church of England Pohick Churchsvestryman, George Washington, could EVER unite sufficiently to create a nation.
But, they did. They did, largely because enough leaders in the 13 squabbling colonies heeded a letter sent to each of the governors of the 13 states placing describing the great opportunities for the future if they would just recognize the four things he considered essential to the well-being even to the existence of the United States as an independent power:
1. An indissoluble Union of the States under one federal head
2. A sacred regard for public justice
3. The adoption of a proper peace establishment and
4. The prevalence of a pacific and friendly disposition among the people of the United States which will induce them to forget their local prejudices and policies and make those mutual concessions which are requisite to the general prosperity. That would, he pointed out, require at times them to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest of the community.
Perhaps these days we Americans need to work on that pacific and friendly disposition and stop attacking one another, if we want others to follow our founding fathers political ideals.
http://www.americandaily.com/article/6874
