2000
Look for a new landmark in Iraq to come in the next week or two. And no, not a constitution. It’ll be the 2,000th American soldier killed in Iraq. The total today is 1,975, with 42 having died in the past two weeks.
About the constitution? I see it as only slightly more relevant than the other half-dozen “momentous occasions” we’ve been sold over the past few years. I sincerely hope it all goes well from here, but I just as sincerely doubt it will. The Iraqis will still not be free, the “Democracy” is a thinly-veiled puppet state, our soldiers will still be fighting and dying there after Bush leaves office in three years, and there is anything but the semblance of order or stability there. And a constitution will not mean much in the middle of all that, any more than the multiple “handovers of power, the prior election, or any of the other milestones we’ve been told will make All The Difference.
The reason that it is important for the Referendum to pass is two-fold.
One, if it passes the Iraqis will elect a permanent government in December. This paves the way for an earlier return home for the troops.
Second, it may help to hold the Iraqis together and avoid certain civil war.
In the same way that the last elections were supposed to hold Iraqis together and return some troops home ealier? As was for the two previous handovers of power? Every time one of these events happens, it’s just the same old business after as before. There is no indication whatsoever that anything positive is coming of these–just hopes and dreams and political PR events, nothing more. This election may have passed the Sunnis, but that means zero in terms of their unity with other Iraqis–and it may even help fracture things down the line.
When the insurgency stops and 90%+ of our troops come home and the Iraqis are united, then I’ll tip my hat. But until then, it’s all talk and no results.