Consider the Source

Washingtonpost.com writer (and The Nation alum) Jefferson Morley returns from vacation for his World Opinion Roundup, and wastes no time recapping every shred of bad news from Iraq, including dire commentary on the constitution. He cites downcast coverage by Iraqi media, certainly part of the picture, and links to Iraqi blogger Raed in the Middle. Morley:

Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar complained last week that "the US ambassador to Iraq attends all the constitution meetings and gives the Iraqi stakeholders some printed 'suggestions' to break the deadlock, while the Iraqi resistance's assassinations and attacks are getting stronger and more effective."

"US decision makers are still refusing to face the truth," he wrote from his home in Amman, Jordan. "The premature elections this year were more than enough to convince anyone of the fact that Iraq won't be rebuilt if we continued working on the same path: Bush's path of lies and failure.

"The Iraqi constitution shouldn't be rushed through. Iraqis have the right to take as much time as they need to write their country's constitution," he said.

Unless there are two Raed Jarrars running around the blogosphere, this is the fellow Salman Pax was hailing in the famous Iraqi blog, Where is Raed? Evidently Raed blogged at Salman Pax's place until launching his own.

The more the merrier, but other recent posts by Raed that are unremarked upon by Morley include the observation that the chickenhawks are losing it, concerning a shooting death in the U.S. and wild language in his comments section; an Open Letter to the Japanese People asking for their withdrawal from Iraq on "the 60th anniversary of the most horrible mass-murder attacks in history;" and the posting of a Troops Out Now poster for an event sponsored by the Stalinist front group International  ANSWER, with bonus links to Cindy Sheehan.

Why should anyone wait until thousands more of these young men and women fall in Iraq for no reason? asks Raed in that gem. Gee, nothing comes to mind.

For more balanced views on the Iraqi constitution, start here and here.