The Men Who Would Be King

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-01-29 03:17am

Link

Oh yeah ... just what Iraq needs ..... a battle over who gets to be King!

Only possible benefit is future news story with Iraqi peasant asking "How'd you get to be king then, eh? I didn't vote for you!"

Post by **fgalkin** » 2005-01-29 03:21am

Just waht we need...another Saudi Arabia.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Marksist · Post by **Marksist** » 2005-01-29 03:53am

"How'd you get to be king then, eh? I didn't vote for you!"

"Oh, but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you. "

Gunhead · Post by **Gunhead** » 2005-01-29 05:51am

Iraq does desperately need a strong figurehead all iraqis can support. I wouldn't mind Iraq having a king, as long as said king supports the democratic system and knows he's just to represent the country in formal international occasions and such, and in general act as a go between different factions. This guy wants a king with real political power which is big fucking no-no in country that's trying to recover from a dictatorship.

To stomp the idea just because it has the word "king" in it, is wrong IMO.

-Gunhead

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-01-29 06:11am

Gunhead wrote:Iraq does desperately need a strong figurehead all iraqis can support. I wouldn't mind Iraq having a king, as long as said king supports the democratic system and knows he's just to represent the country in formal international occasions and such, and in general act as a go between different factions. This guy wants a king with real political power which is big fucking no-no in country that's trying to recover from a dictatorship.

To stomp the idea just because it has the word "king" in it, is wrong IMO.

-Gunhead

None of the people with guns who are going to fuck up this country are going to rally around a guy who calls himself the King ....

And watery tarts will soon be blasphemous and subject to stoning in the Islamic Republic of Iraq ....

Gunhead · Post by **Gunhead** » 2005-01-29 08:00am

Chmee, I just said it would do the country good to have a good figurehead. Never said it's this clown, or a man/woman that would be a good figurehead would be appearing anytime soon.

The idea is good, just not very likely to happen.

-Gunhead

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2005-01-29 10:38am

I wouldn't dismiss a constitutional monarchy out of hand. Iraq DESPARATELY needs a unifying figure that is specifically Iraqi before it's Shiite, Sunni, or Kurd. The country is on the verge of falling apart--the Kurds almost to a man see this election as the next step towards independence, the Sunnis refuse to participate and are going to get shut out of the constitutional convention for it, and the Shiites are rubbing their hands together dreaming about having all the marbles. You're already looking at a constitution that makes Iraq little more than a loose federation of Kurdistan, Sunni Iraq, and one or more Shiite states, complete with national armies for each federation member.

Lord Zentei · Post by **Lord Zentei** » 2005-01-29 02:43pm

The problem is that the factions might not identify with the king if he is not of their group: would the Shiia identify with and accept a Sunni king for instance? Would the Kurds?

Lord Zentei · Post by **Lord Zentei** » 2005-01-29 02:44pm

Lord Zentei wrote:The problem is that the factions might not identify with the king if he is not of their group: would the Shiia identify with and accept a Sunni king for instance? Would the Kurds?

And by "would the Kurds?", I meant "would they accept a Sunni Arab?