I was reading in the paper about Iraqi "pop up" militias who are ad hoc groups that are aiding the US in fighting insurgents. While US troops appreciate the help, there's concern that their allegiances are too flexible to be fully trusted.

One thing you're reminded of in constitutional law is that our country's progress to being a 'beacon of liberty' has been neither quick nor smooth. In the first hundred years we had:

+ a first constitution that failed & had to be replaced
+ a second constitution that legitimized slavery
+ a civil war
+ no voting rights for women

and so on. Why do we expect that countries like Iraq will step, Cinderella-style, directly from the sooty fireplace of dictatorship into the glass slippers of democracy. Maybe our strategy is to help them consolidate their revolutionary war & their civil war, just to save some time.

Well, at least the Iraqi women didn't have to wait 150 years to vote.

16 Feb 05