How Shall They be Constituted?

Should we really be surprised that Iraq is having difficulty dealing with constitutional matters? Word has it two of the biggest issues of contention are the rights of women and the role of Islam in the government.

I suppose there are some liberals left (mostly in that category popularly referred to as Conservatives, though they are political Liberals) who may have thought that freeing the Iraqi people from suppression would ipso facto create a yearning in them not just for freedom and democracy, but exactly the same kind of modern western democracy we have in the United States.

During my coursework in the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor, I occasioned to peruse the constitutions of many of the world’s democracies. I quickly noticed that most of those that followed the founding of the United Nations were nearly identical. Apparently some good natured liberal thought that what was important was that each nation has a constitution; not that it be drafted by and out of the lives, traditions, and philosophies of the people of that nation.

I have no doubt the Iraqis will come up with a constitution. Will it satisfy the U.S. more if it looks more like ours, or if it fits the people charged with developing it?