Rejection Notice

Those Sunnis have rejected the draft of the Iraqi Constitution.

Intervention is unlikely, however, and no further amendments to the draft are possible under the law, said a legal expert on the drafting committee, Hussein Addab.

"I think if this constitution passes as it is, it will worsen everything in the country," said Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni negotiator.

President Bush expressed disappointment that the Sunnis did not sign on but pinned his hopes on the referendum, saying it was a chance for Iraqis to "set the foundation for a permanent Iraqi government."

But the depth of disillusionment over the charter in the Sunni establishment extended beyond the 15 negotiators, who were appointed to the constitutional committee in June under U.S. pressure.

The country's Sunni vice president, Ghazi al-Yawer, did not show up at a Sunday ceremony marking completion of the document. When President Jalal Talabani said that al-Yawer was ill, senior government officials including Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi howled with laughter.

"The constitution is left to our people to approve or reject it," said Talabani, a Kurd. "I hope that our people will accept it despite some flaws."

A top Sunni who did attend the ceremony, parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani, said he thought the final document contained "too much religion" and too little protection of womens' rights.

The Constitution will continue its public fight on October 15th, when it will have a public referendum, albeit without endorsement by the Iraqi minority Sunnis. The reasons above certainly don't seen to be out of line with a certain moral desire- the more-secular Sunnis have everything to lose in an Islamicized official government in Iraq. And apparently, they didn't see the same Constitution that Georgy says that Condi told him about. It does appear, however, that the Kurds and Shi'ites have taken a page out of The Administration's rhetoric of Mandate:

"I think to them, they won the election ... so it is an opportunity to them to get whatever they want," al-Hassani told reporters. "If I was in their camp, I would have been more generous."