Consitutional guessing game

So we're sitting here in Baghdad on tender hooks waiting to see if a Constitution will be approved today. So far I get a different view from everyone I speak to. Apparently there is going to be a leadership meeting in about 30 mins to decide on whether to ammend the Transitional Administrative Law to get a week's extension. The Americans are furious of course and twisting arms to get it signed and sealed today. It's hard to know what's best. On the one hand if there's a week's extension they might be in the same situation next week but without the spur of an almost sacred deadline (to some). However if a text is pushed through today with major objections, including probably much of the Sunni Arab community, then that could generate big problems down the line. A third option is that everyone, including Sunni Arabs, will sign up to a text, which will form the basis of the referendum and elections, but with some of the outstanding elements being on a provisional basis. I'd always argued that there should have been an extension of a month or two made back on the 1 August, since then there would have been time to plan for more input from the Iraqi public, something which a rolling extension process does not really make possible, being geared just to the delibarations of the politicians. Anyway, it's anyones guess what will happen. In any case we'll probably know by about 4pm Iraqi time what the decision is.

Iraqi joke

If it wasn't so incredibly serious I would say the constitutional drafting process is a complete joke, particularly now that the US Ambassador has bullied the Iraqis from taking the one month extension that most wanted. But it wouldn't be diplomatic of me too say too much, so I'll give you a joke that has been circulating in Iraq:

A Brit, an American and an Iraqi died in a carbomb and went to Hell. As they sat around talking about their situation, they began to think about their homelands, the Devil mentioned that they'd just got inter-dimensional dialing hooked up and suggested that they call home, but they'd have to pay.

The Brit said "I really miss England, and I need to call and find out how the cricket is going." So he called and talked for about 5 minutes and asked the Devil "So Satan, old chap, how much do I owe you for the phone call?" The devil replied wickedly "Five million pounds"... "Five million pounds!!!" exclaimed the Brit, but he handed over his credit card and went to sit back on his chair.

The American was soo jelalous, he starts screaming: "me too, I wanna call the US and, I wanna hear what's happening in the NFL." So he called and talked really quickly for about 2 minutes, and then he said: "Well, Devil, how many bucks is it." and the devil goes "For you habibi, just ten million dollars."... "f$&k, Ten million dollars!!!!!!" he cursed, but he handed over his credit card and went to sit back on his chair.

Finally the Iraqi gets to call home and, being Iraqi, he talked and talked for about twenty hours. Finally he finished and said "So how much is it?" And the devil says "One dollar". "Only one dollar?!" the Brit and American exclaim together. "Yes" replies the devil, "From Hell to Hell, it's a local call."