Back in Iraq

Faces from the Front[*1] returns to Iraq:

With camera in hand, I covered four rolling press conferences as the various Iraqi political factions paraded in front of the cameras.

I couldn’t understand the words, but I understood what was going on. It felt like I was back working the Kansas legislature.

Men, women, Shieks, Imams, all standing at the podium in front of a dozen cameras and a bevy of print reporters, talking about the writing of Iraq’s new constitution.

In the United States, it took 4 years to write and ratify our current constitution. That was after several years of the failed Articles of Confederation.
. . .
On a side note, one of the more popular books for the delegates to Iraq’s constitutional convention and members of the National Assembly is an Arabic translation of the Federalist Papers.

Maybe one of the men and women I taped today will turn out to be Iraq’s Madison or Hamilton.