Sunnis Agree to Rejoin Iraqi Charter Process

New York Times:

Weeks before an important deadline for the new constitution, Sunni Arab leaders said today that they had ended their boycott of the drafting process. The Sunni leaders said the original constitutional committee, made up almost entirely of Shiites and Kurds, had agreed to the conditions the Sunni Arabs had set for their return, including having the government provide bodyguards. The Sunnis said they expected an agreement in writing to formalize the accord. The Sunni Arab boycott began last week after two colleagues were assassinated in downtown Baghdad. ' We met in the morning with the speaker Mr. Al-Hasani, and Humam Hamoudi and other members like Dr. Fouad Masoum, and we reached an agreement that will be announced today,' Kamal Hamdoun, a Sunni member in the constitution committee said during a phone interview today.

Obviously this is a positivie development. I have a great deal of admiration for the members of the Iraqi constitutional committee. At a very real threat to their lives they are engaging in an extremely difficult task, and one that is largely thankless as it is difficult to please everyone (a proper constitution won't completely please anyone.) They are, along with men of similar nature in Afghanistan, and reformers who are emerging in other Arab nations, the true heroes, and most central figures, in the War on Terror. If it is won, it will be because of the bravery and sacrifice of these men and women, all too often martyrs in the cause. Our role is to give them a chance to win this war. We can give them time and space to change the nature of the Arab world and rescue Islam from the death cult that has so successfully, and deeply infiltrated it. Blowing up trainstations, busses and sea side resorts is easy. Building a system of government that respects and protects the rights of every citizen is hard. I'm betting on the builders though.