It is hard not to be bully on Iraq. Those people suffered through 30 years of terrible oppression, torture and mass graves. And after we liberated them, they have had to deal with blood thirsty Al Qaeda terrorists who make Saddam look normal. And through it all they keep building, they keep working and they keep the faith they can return to the world as a democracy of free and diverse people.

The only people who cannot envision all this are sour grapes types wishing Bush would lose a political battle. That is what we like to call ‘tunnel vision’. So news today on a compromise solution to the constitution, only 3 days out from the vote, is very encouraging.

Four days before Iraqis are to vote on their country’s proposed constitution, Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish power brokers reached a breakthrough late Tuesday that revived hopes of winning Sunni support for the charter and defusing the Sunni-led insurgency by political means, Iraqi political leaders said.
…
The tentative accord, which would allow the constitution to be changed early next year, was reached through closed-door deals made largely by political party chiefs rather than members of the committee that wrote the charter.
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“With the changes, I will give my full support to the constitution,” said Mishan Jabouri, a Sunni Arab who was involved in negotiations. An opponent of the previous draft, Jabouri had said he stayed in the talks only at the coaxing of Middle Eastern diplomats.

I had to snip every other section, since the writers felt compelled to ‘balance’ the news with doom and gloom speculation. Silly journalists!

I will speculate myself the Sunni’s will support this constitution. They have a clear choice in front of them. They can have more of Al Qaeda killing their Muslim neighbors and country men, or they can control their own destinies.

Al Qaeda misses the entire Arabic and Muslim pride thing. All the terrorists offer is a new variation on the Saddam oppression. All they tell their potential oppressors is they need Al Qaeda to take care of them.

Too bad for Al Qaeda Iraq has a literacy rate equal to most modern nations, a very strong education system, and a cultural pride that is not easy to destroy.

I am bullish on Iraq, and if anyone deserved to be a free and democratic people, the vast majority of Iraqis do.

UPDATE:

Ed Morrissey has a thoughtful post up on the subject here – check it out. He is a bit less optimistic due to some logistical concerns on the agreement, but he agrees democracy is catching in Iraq.

MAJOR UPDATE:

And Mark Coffey warms my heart with some stunning poll numbers showing nearly 80% of Iraqis support the constitution! There will be world wide celebrations nect week if those numbers hold up! Except of course in newsrooms and the democrat caucus.

ANOTHER MAJOR UPDATE:

Yeah, that seems a bit overly redundant, but the Iraqi Government has agreed to the compromise constitution ahead of the vote – ensuring not only a successful vote, but Sunni participation. What an historic event to have the privilege to watch unfold.