The Arafat Model

IRAQIS gathered around television sets as midnight approached on August 22. They watched as constitutional drafting-committee members and political elites whispered among themselves. When the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hachim al-Hasani, declared, “We have received a draft of the constitution,” the assembly erupted in applause. “But,” he added, “there are some points that are still outstanding and need to be addressed in the next three days.” Late into the night, politicians and activists continued to meet in the Baghdad homes of the major powerbrokers, grappling with the roles of federalism and Islam in the new Iraq.

While U.S. diplomats and Washington advisers continue to facilitate compromise among Iraq’s disparate sectarian, ethnic, and political groups, the reality emerging outside Baghdad is directly challenging Iraq’s aspirations to constitutionalism. The U.S. government has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring outside experts to Baghdad for a period of a few days or a few weeks, but Iraqi powerbrokers dismiss their advice as naïve or irrelevant. Massoud Barzani in the Kurdish north and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim and Moqtada al-Sadr in the Shiite south have rejected the experts’ academic proposals, and have chosen instead a model perfected by Yasir Arafat, the late PLO chairman.

About the Author

Michael Rubin

Michael Rubin is Director of Policy Analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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IRAQIS gathered around television sets as midnight approached on August 22. They watched as constitutional drafting-committee members and political elites whispered among themselves. When the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hachim al-Hasani, declared, “We have received a draft of the constitution,” the assembly erupted in applause. “But,” he added, “there are some points that are still outstanding and need to be addressed in the next three days.” Late into the night, politicians and activists continued to meet in the Baghdad homes of the major powerbrokers, grappling with the roles of federalism and Islam in the new Iraq.

While U.S. diplomats and Washington advisers continue to facilitate compromise among Iraq’s disparate sectarian, ethnic, and political groups, the reality emerging outside Baghdad is directly challenging Iraq’s aspirations to constitutionalism. The U.S. government has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring outside experts to Baghdad for a period of a few days or a few weeks, but Iraqi powerbrokers dismiss their advice as naïve or irrelevant. Massoud Barzani in the Kurdish north and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim and Moqtada al-Sadr in the Shiite south have rejected the experts’ academic proposals, and have chosen instead a model perfected by Yasir Arafat, the late PLO chairman.