# Bush supports a racist agenda ! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 31, 2005, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806 "2005-10-31T22:16:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/1 "2005-10-31T22:16:02Z")
So we all know Bush is behind the new Iraqi constitution right ? Well I just found this little [tidbit](http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Briefs/6101.htm) supposedly tucked away in this new constitution. > [@](#): > > Any individual with another nationality (except for Israel) may obtain Iraqi nationality after a period of residency inside the borders of Iraq of not less than ten years for an Arab or twenty years for any other nationality, as long as he has good character and behavior, and has no criminal judgment against him from the Iraqi authorities during the time of his residency on the territory of the Iraqi republic. For those who think we are talking about a nationality, not a “race”, consider the statement “ten years for an Arab or twenty years for any other nationality”. Pretty sloppy, after all there is no such thing as an Arab nationality, but it is fairly clear to me ambiguity in definition of the term “nationality” allows for ambiguity in the difference between Israeli and Jew. That is not saying a strict interpretation of the term Israeli isn’t bad enough. I can’t understand why the Kurds let this one pass. Puts a Kurd in a second class category. This is a great excuse for pulling out. I can’t understand any justification for supporting a racist constitution. You would think the American “liberals” would be all over this one. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/2 "2005-10-31T22:17:46Z")
Ooops ! I thought I was in the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/3 "2005-10-31T22:26:41Z")
> [@The Flying Dutchman](#): > > So we all know Bush is behind the new Iraqi constitution right ? Whta odd reasoning. Yes, be is “behind” the constituion, but behind ≠ beging behind every jot and titel. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/4 "2005-10-31T22:28:24Z")
I hit submit instead of preview. :smack: That shoul;d read " > [@The Flying Dutchman](#): > > So we all know Bush is behind the new Iraqi constitution right ? What odd reasoning. Yes, be is “behind” the constitution, but behind ≠ being behind every jot and title. " ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/5 "2005-10-31T22:42:57Z")
[“Tittle,”](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=tittle) not title. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/6 "2005-10-31T22:48:31Z")
:smack: , part the third. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/7 "2005-10-31T22:57:53Z")
This thread is not starting out very well ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/8 "2005-10-31T23:21:17Z")
For a whole host of reasons. (Hint: My bad spelling is not the worst part. Perhaps the blame lays elsewhere…) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/9 "2005-10-31T23:39:55Z")
Relax, no big deal. Don’t take it personally, but do you have to spell check all your posts? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_griffin-kentzel/32/14787_2.png) [@Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Griffin-Kentzel)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/10 "2005-11-01T00:55:11Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by **The Flying Dutchman** _ > > Ooops ! > > I thought I was in the Pit Off to **The Pit**. **Cajun Man** for the SDMB ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/11 "2005-11-01T01:03:23Z")
Meh. Many countries have multiple tiered citizenship/residency laws. Israel, in fact, has one of the more famous ones, but Germany does as well (or at least they did until very recently-- not sure if it’s been changed). ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/12 "2005-11-01T12:16:35Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > Meh. Many countries have multiple tiered citizenship/residency laws. Israel, in fact, has one of the more famous ones, but Germany does as well (or at least they did until very recently-- not sure if it’s been changed). True enough. But do either of those countries specifically prohibit the members of any other particular individual nation from ever becoming citizens? (This is not merely a rhetorical question. I don’t know the answer.) ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/13 "2005-11-01T12:26:20Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > But do either of those countries specifically prohibit the members of any other particular individual nation from ever becoming citizens? Plus what about Israeli Arabs? Do they make the cut, or no? ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/14 "2005-11-01T13:04:16Z")
The OP didn’t say Bush wrote it. It said he supported it. Which he does. In fact, Bush is putting a lot of energy, not to mention American lives, behind this racist constitution. Germany and Israel’s racist constitutions are not Bush’s responsibility-- Iraq’s is. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/15 "2005-11-01T13:19:37Z")
Well, not too put too fine a point on it, if we are going to maintain that Iraq has the right to determine their own fate in a manner of their choosing we have to allow them to set up their rules the way they want to set them up. The constitution was drafted by (perhaps not “freely”) elected representatives who simply carried out the “will of the people”, as it were. If we are supposedly fostering “democracy” we have to allow them the make their own rules. You may not like it, Bush may not like it, 49.9% of the Iraqi people may not like it, but if it’s in the Constitution and it passes it’s the law of the land. Welcome to democracy. Or does it only count when the laws that other countries live by are ones that you approve of? ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/16 "2005-11-01T13:29:46Z")
So, Airman, it’s fine and dandy that our countrymen are dying to put this racist constitution into place? There should be no sense of outrage over this? We should just not mention it because, well, it’s fostering democracy-- sort of. This war is a colossal fuck up from top to bottom, front and back and now you are trying to tell me it should be all right for our country to be fighting to uphold discrimination in some forgein land? I don’t think so. Bush supports a racist constitution with the blood of Americans. He should stop doing that. You should be pissed that he is. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/17 "2005-11-01T13:33:22Z")
> [@Airman Doors](#): > > If we are supposedly fostering “democracy” we have to allow them the make their own rules. You may not like it, Bush may not like it, 49.9% of the Iraqi people may not like it, but if it’s in the Constitution and it passes it’s the law of the land. Welcome to democracy. > > Or does it only count when the laws that other countries live by are ones that you approve of? That’s an interesting question. Is “democracy” really nothing more than majority rule? Or does true democracy also require some baseline of human and civil rights, including racial equality? It’s a debatable point, and I don’t think the answer is necessarily as simple as “democracy means the majority can do whatever they want”. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/18 "2005-11-01T13:40:57Z")
What makes you think that I’m not pissed off? I’ve lost 5 friends over there. Dead. My sister is about to get her marching orders to Baghdad. I’m going over for at least 2 months on Thursday. None of this is a good thing, especially because we were supposed to be gone by now. But that doesn’t change the fact that by giving them the freedom of self-determination we should allow them to, well, determine for themselves how they want to live. If we have any integrity at all we’ll allow them to do so, come what may. It’s hardly a democracy if an outside body interferes. With any luck they’ll learn just as we have, but they have to be allowed to make their own mistakes. If that means that the citizenship rules are jacked, well, that’s the price we have to pay. If that means that women remain second-class citizens, sorry, but that’s their prerogative. Or we can just set up a puppet government and stay there forever. I much prefer option 1. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/19 "2005-11-01T13:46:20Z")
> [@Airman Doors](#): > > But that doesn’t change the fact that by giving them the freedom of self-determination we should allow them to, well, determine for themselves how they want to live. Too bad not everybody there is going to actually have that freedom of self-determinism. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806/20 "2005-11-01T13:48:49Z")
> [@Airman Doors](#): > > What makes you think that I’m not pissed off? I’ve lost 5 friends over there. Dead. My sister is about to get her marching orders to Baghdad. I’m going over for at least 2 months on Thursday. None of this is a good thing, especially because we were supposed to be gone by now. > > But that doesn’t change the fact that by giving them the freedom of self-determination we should allow them to, well, determine for themselves how they want to live. If we have any integrity at all we’ll allow them to do so, come what may. It’s hardly a democracy if an outside body interferes. With any luck they’ll learn just as we have, but they have to be allowed to make their own mistakes. If that means that the citizenship rules are jacked, well, that’s the price we have to pay. If that means that women remain second-class citizens, sorry, but that’s their prerogative. > > Or we can just set up a puppet government and stay there forever. I much prefer option 1. Well then, I agree with you except for the part where we actually _support_ the racist agenda. When they put in the “everybody but Isrealites” clause in, we should have said, “Nice. Go with that if you like. We just won’t be a party to it.” Sure, we don’t shouldn’t tell them what should be in their constitution but we shouldn’t be _fighting_ for something so fundamentally undemocratic. P.S. We have a very nice democracy. One of the things that we have that makes it nice is a bicameral legislature. To sheild us from the tyranny of the majority. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-supports-a-racist-agenda/328806.md?page=2)