Meanwhile: U.S. concession on Islam said to turn Iraq talks
U.S. concession on Islam said to turn Iraq talks
Sat Aug 20, 2005 8:38 AM ET
By Luke Baker and Michael Georgy
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. concessions to Islamists on the role of religion in Iraqi law marked a turn in talks on a constitution, negotiators said on Saturday as they raced to meet a 48-hour deadline under intense U.S. pressure to clinch a deal.
U.S. diplomats, who have insisted the constitution must enshrine ideals of equal rights and democracy, declined comment.
Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish negotiators all said there was accord on a bigger role for Islamic law than Iraq had before.
But a secular Kurdish politician said Kurds opposed making Islam not "a" but "the" main source of law -- a reversal of interim legal arrangements -- and subjecting all legislation to a religious test.
"We understand the Americans have sided with the Shi'ites," he said. "It's shocking. It doesn't fit American values. They have spent so much blood and money here, only to back the creation of an Islamist state ... I can't believe that's what the Americans really want or what the American people want."
"What the Americans really want" indeed. We have just spent 1,862 American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars to help create an Islamic theocracy in Iraq. In the meantime, no stockpiles of WMDs were ever found.