I got links.
Carnival of Liberty IX
I’d like to point that the latest installment of the Life, Liberty, Property community‘s Carnival of Liberty. Go read another fine collection of posts from a libertarian slant.
US air strikes on Syrian border kill ‘known terrorist’
The United States launched air strikes near the Iraq-Syria border yesterday, destroying three houses and killing a “known terrorist”, according to the US military.
Iraqi authorities said fighting had broken out in the area between a tribe that supports foreign fighters and another that backs the government.
The attacks by F-16 jets began in a cluster of towns along the Syrian border, near Qaim, 200 miles north-west of Baghdad. The US said four bombs were used to destroy a house occupied by “terrorists” outside the town of Husaybah. Two further bombs destroyed a second house, said to be occupied by Abu Islam, described as “a known terrorist”.
Scratch at least one bad guy. However, I find it interesting, in a disturbing kind of way, that we have identified a tribe that supports foreign terrorists and haven’t hit it with an iron fist.
Iraq’s proposed constitution can be faulted for its contradictions and ambiguities. If those were its only problems, however, the outlook for this democracy-founding document would look a lot better than it now does, for constitutions the world over share these characteristics.
The greatest flaw is not what’s in this draft, but how it was handled: presented to Iraq’s National Assembly on Sunday over the objections of Sunni negotiators. In effect, one of the major groups in the three-legged stool that makes up Iraq is missing.
A constitution derives legitimacy and power from national consensus. The document hammered out in Baghdad this summer rightly declares it is “the people” who are “the source of authority” for constitutional rule of law. No consensus, no country.
Leaders of the minority Sunnis, who ruled Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and who make up about 20 percent of Iraq’s population, now vow to wage a campaign of opposition to the constitution, which comes to voters for approval in October. If two-thirds of voters in three Iraqi provinces reject it, then a newly elected parliament would have to write a new document. With enough votes this fall, the Sunnis could indeed put the process back at square one.
But it’s not too late for a Sunni buy-in. And surprisingly, it’s the contradictory and ambiguous nature of the proposed constitution that could help bring Sunnis on board.
It’s an interesting look at the proposed Iraqi constitution and what it’s wording may mean to the Sunnis. Although I have not perused the constitution yet, I see that Sunnis as having two choices: mildly support the document and become more of a player on the scene or oppose it outright. Should they oppose it and it is still ratified, the Sunnis run the risk of perpetuating their errors of turning out in low numbers in January’s elections.
Arroyo likely to escape ousting
Lawmakers in the Philippines are due to resume their deliberations about which of three impeachment complaints to take up against President Gloria Arroyo.
They are expected to choose the weakest option, and are then highly likely to vote it down, effectively thwarting any attempt to oust her from office.
Mrs Arroyo faces accusations of corruption and electoral fraud.
She denies any wrongdoing but admits to a “lapse in judgement” in phoning an election officer during the 2004 poll.
This is truly looking like a shame. The Philippines are passing by an opportunity to remove a center of corruption. I will never forgive this woman, the Manila folder whose willingness to retreat from Iraq for one life while throwing money at the terrorists has quite probably cost lives, both innocent Iraqis and brave Americans.
Bush enters immigration debate
President Bush flew into the heart of the nation’s volatile debate over illegal immigration Monday and defended his administration’s efforts to control the nearby border with Mexico after a surge of criticism from across the political spectrum.
Two weeks after the Democratic governors of Arizona and New Mexico declared states of emergency along the border, Bush used a Medicare speech here to promise local residents an increasingly robust federal campaign that will deploy more agents and provide more detention space to stop those trying to sneak into the country.
“We have an obligation to enforce the borders,” Bush said to applause. “I understand it’s putting a strain on your resources. What I’m telling you is there’s a lot of people working hard to get the job done, but there is more we can do.”
Of course there’s more we can do. After this, I want a lot more done. Maybe it’s finally time we start considering our borders as one of the front lines in the war against radical Islamist terror.