Let us now praise eloquent Irishmen. In the wake of the sordid Paisley-Adams rapprochement, it's worth recalling the historic Hibernian stake in questions of nationhood and constitutional federalism. Among those scholars toiling in this complex field none impresses me more than Brendan O'Leary of the University of Pennsylvania.
Professor O'Leary, a one-time contributor to the New Left Review (and how far that journal has fallen since) and an advisor to the Kurdistan Regional Government, has written a must-read riposte in Democratyia to the Baker-Hamilton Commission's nonstarter report on what to do about Iraq.
If you think this document is passe, think again. As O'Leary suggests, it's sure to crop up at least in the subtext of the 2008 presidential election as every Democratic — and almost every Republican — candidate vies to outdo one another on "realist" bona fides.
There's a lot of ground to cover, but here's the witty gist of his polemic:
The answer is that The ISG Report is a full-frontal assault on Iraq’s constitution of 2005. It commends a course of action that would push the U.S. government completely to unravel Iraq’s constitution, which was endorsed by four of five of Iraq’s voters, a higher level of endorsement than that enjoyed by any attempts to change the constitution of Canada. While suggesting no changes in the constitutions of any of Iraq’s neighbours (let alone regime changes), The ISG Report treats the new democratic constitution of the United States’ Iraqi ally with contempt.
The ISG Report is a recipe for a constitutional coup d’état, but without local coup-leaders, for now. The prescription is terse, ‘The USG should support as much possible central control by governmental authorities in Baghdad, particularly on the question of oil revenues’ (see page 39). It carefully does not say ‘within the limits of the constitution,’ or ‘the rule of law’; it just says as ‘much possible central control.’ ‘Go figure.’
Remarkably, The ISG Report claims that it offers a ‘new approach.’ In fact it is no different from that promoted by L. Paul Bremer III before the making of the Transitional Administrative Law of 2004. It is an interesting anthropological fact that Americans with III after their names often have the same ideas. Perhaps they come from the same sect?