Iraq's Arab neighbours also have been unsettled by language in the draft identifying Iraq as an Islamic - not Arab - country. Arab League diplomats said they were concerned about language that would appear to weaken Iraq's ties to the Arab world...
"(P)robably some words will be changed here and there, and this issue is under discussion, especially the Iraqi identity," Kurdish negotiator Mahmoud Othman said. "We are discussing this article aiming at achieving an aspiration of the Arab League as well as to satisfy some parties."...
To the Sunnis, however, the biggest obstacle was the article paving the way for creation of federated states, the chief demand of the Kurds to protect their 14-year-old self-ruled area in the north.
So all that's left to be worked out are Iraq's national identity and its system of government. To people grounded in reality, disagreements on such core issues would indicate some serious differences of position leading to a need for a lot more negotiations to come. Unfortunately, for Iraq's puppet government, they're considered "minor issues", since adherence to timelines is apparently a lot more important than actually having a workable constitution.
Meanwhile, the article also points out that Saddam Hussein's trial is scheduled to start just after the constitutional vote. Supposedly the reason is to try to avoid polarization before the vote, but on that score there was no reason for the trial to start as soon as it will.
More likely the trial is simply a diversion. Even if the country descends even further into the abyss after the vote (as seems likely regardless of the outcome), Bushco will then start ranting ad nauseum about how Saddam's trial is the great accomplishment which justifies the invasion. Because in Bush's world, it's better to put thousands of innocent people to death than to let one guilty man go free.
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