Daily Kos

A King For Iraq?

by Mimikatz

Wed Oct 29, 2003 at 04:05:07 PM PDT

A somewhat bizarre op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal today by Bernard Lewis and James Woolsey says, in essence, that we could just dust off Iraq's 1925 Constitution, since it has a lot of good provisions about religious freedom and add a little bit about women's rights, and presto!  No need for a drawn out constituent assembly and constitution drafting.  Then the kicker--that Constitution entrusts the country to the Hashemite rulers, the original 1925 King and his heirs.  So, they suggest, we find a youngish Hashemite and make him King.  (This is the same  family that rules Jordan.)  This made no sense to me until I put it together with the recent posts  on CalPundit and Talking Points about the search for a quick exit strategy.  A King???? Sounds like a trial balloon to me.

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  •  Re: A King For Iraq? (none / 0)

    This suggestion is not unique to the Iraq situation, and is actually a common one bandied about for rebuilding countries following rule by a particularly brutal regime.

    There was a lot of serious talk about the king returning to Afghanistan post-Taliban.  And a couple of the former Soviet republics and iron-curtain countries seriously considered the idea after the fall of communism and the USSR.

    The idea is to have a head of state, a symbolic leader of the country.  Doesn't have a whole lot of power, but is a figurehead who the nation can rally around.  Buys time while the hard work still needs to get done.

    99% perspiration

    by DaveOinSF on Wed Oct 29, 2003 at 04:15:13 PM PDT

  •  Re: A King For Iraq? (none / 0)

    Actually Juan Cole suggested the same thing, except that instead of restoring the Hashemites, you replace references to the king with president, parliament, etc.  He made quite a convincing case.  I don't know how extensive his archives are, I believe he had this on his site about 6 weeks ago.

    Actually, restoring the Hashemites, cousins of the ruling house in Jordan, is a neo-con fantasy I've seen bandied about for the past year.  It's nuts.  One might just as well try to restore the House of Savoy in Italy, or the Hohenzollerns in Germany.  Considering what happened to the last Hashemite ruler of Iraq, a public beheading after the 1958 coup, I can't believe they'd be crazy enough to accept this "gift."

    Lewis seems to have lost his mind.  A pity.  Woolsey was probably born insane.

    "L'enfer, c'est les autres." - Jean Paul Sartre, Huis Clos

    "L'enfer, c'est le GOP!" - JJB, from an idea by oratorio

    by JJB on Wed Oct 29, 2003 at 04:28:39 PM PDT

  •  Re: A King For Iraq? (none / 0)

    Update:  Here is an article from Forward on a meeting between (former) Crown Prince Hassan, former King Hussein's uncle and Wolfowitz.  I agree it sounds highly improbable and loony, but come next March they will really be casting about for someone to hand the country to.  Sorry I can't figure out how to make it a link.

    http://www.forward.com/issues/2002/02.08.09/news3.html

    John McCain--he's not who you think he is.

    by Mimikatz on Wed Oct 29, 2003 at 05:35:41 PM PDT

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