Word: loya
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...credible and durable Iraqi governing body. In Afghanistan, we had started from the ground up, allowing the various political groups to legitimize themselves, then building toward a central, representational government. In Iraq, the process couldn't have been more different. We never had a conference comparable to the Afghan Loya Jirga that produced a leader, Hamid Karzai, around whom the country could coalesce. We had won the war; we had the guns, the tanks, the soldiers, and the air power. We were in charge, and by God, we knew what was best. Alas, what too many people...
...Bush vowed repeatedly to make Iraq free but avoided the use of the word democracy, perhaps subtly hinting that the final outcome would look less Jeffersonian and more Loya Jirga, less Western and more Middle Eastern. The final result, he seemed to be saying, would be a free society but not a perfectly democratic one. That seemed a sensible distinction, even if the president never came out and said it. For a man who?d promised to change the world, it was a rare moment of limited expectations, even if it was left unstated...
...neither of those arrangements, if managed unilaterally by the U.S., would look more legitimate to Iraqis than the current council, which is broadly dismissed as nothing but a U.S. proxy. Another option bandied about is a grand conference of religious, tribal and ethnic leaders modeled on Afghanistan's loya jirga, which would pick an interim government. But, asks a frustrated State Department official involved in the planning, who would select the loya jirga delegates? The U.N. has tentatively floated the idea of giving a group of technocrats limited caretaker authority until elections are held, but no one has spelled...
...constitution adopted in Afghanistan this month is no exception. That, however, should not dampen the Afghani people’s excitement or pride. After three weeks of intense debate and the near collapse of the talks on several occasions, the 502 representatives to the constitutional convention, or loya jirga, in Kabul approved, by a voice vote, a document that the international community is appropriately celebrated as “one of the most enlightened constitutions in the Islamic world,” according the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan. While the successful completion of this milestone should make us optimistic about...
...Sometimes this meeting of the loya jirga is not so moderate, and sometimes it becomes so hot it is close to burning, and sometimes it is so cold that I must go home and get something warm to wear." SEBAGHATULLAH MOJADEDDI, chairman of Afghanistan's grand council, on a meeting held to draw up a new constitution...