[news] How the US got its neoliberal way in Iraq's constitution

[Resist!ca]

By Herbert Docena | Asia Times Online | September 1, 2005 LAST JUNE 30, the Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada published the latest draft of the Iraqi constitution that was then being negotiated by Iraqi politicians. Its contents would have been enough to give former occupation authority chief Paul Bremer a heart attack. The Iraqis - even those who were willing to cooperate with the United States - wanted, at least on paper, to build a Scandinavian-type welfare system in the Arabian desert, with Iraq's vast oil wealth to be spent on upholding every Iraqi's right to education, health care, housing, and other social services. By the time the next version was leaked in late July, the progressive provisions in the draft constitution had disappeared.

URL: http://resist.ca/story/2005/9/5/94234/59204