March 8th, 2003: Iraqi Constitution
On March 8th, 2004 the Iraqi government ratified a temporary constitution. With this constitution the Iraqi people hope to regain control of their government and their natural freedoms. According to the 62nd article of this document, this constitution is only valid until the Iraqi government is formed and just, and at that point they will create a new constitution that is more relevant to an established Iraqi government and nation. A day after the ratification of this constitution, on March 9th the most powerful Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, poured water on the fanfare in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. By doing this he said that any law in the future must be endorsed by an elected national assembly. This means that the constitution is worthless until the next government elections that would take place little under a year from the ratification of the ratification of the constitution. The people of Iraq feel that it is their right to have a just nation under the law even after all these years of having a tyrannical leader. With this new constitution the American influence really starts to show with there articles about how people basic freedoms and rights. Although they still have a way to go before being a completely free nation for example there is nothing in there constitution about separation of church and state on the contrary one of the first things they say is that the main source of legislations comes from the religion of Islam.
