Monday, April 21, 2008

Condi Rice: No Second Amendment for Iraqis

Maybe the jerkweeds at the National Rifle Association should set up a branch in Baghdad.

Yesterday, Condi Rice was there on a surprise visit, during which she praised Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's ongoing clampdown against the Mahdi Army and other militias and criminal elements in Iraq. In her statement, Rice made the following comment:

“[T]he prime minister has laid down some ground rules which any functioning democratic state would insist on, having to do with, you know, arms belonging to the state, not to – not in private hands.” (Italics added.)

(Hat tip to brother curmudgeon for the quote.)

Does this mean Secretary of State Rice disagrees with our Second Amendment, or believes in a very restrictive view of that portion of the Bill of Rights?

Will the NRA go ape over this? Why shouldn't Iraqis have the same god-given rights as bitter small town Americans?

2 comments:

Cargosquid said...

Actually, automatic AK's are allowed.

I'm thinking that they were talking about those crew served weapons like mortars, rockets, etc. And perhaps the RPG's......

Now, myself, I don't have a problem with private ownership, but, the weapons are being used against the democratically elected, non-tyrannical govt and us, so, I don't have a problem with the seizures....

Anonymous said...

Cargosquid completely misses the point. Should private citizens, and by extension militias, have the right to arm themselves in a democratic society?

Your answer is essentially it's OK as long as the weapons are not used against the government, provided the government is non-tyrannical. Now who's the judge of that?

Is the Bush administration non-tyrannical? Methinks it's a debatable point.

Look at the exact language of the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (an otherwise terrific document): “A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Now look at Secretary Rice's exact language.

The media should really press the Bush administration on this... would they oppose the exact language from our constitution being part of the Iraqi constitution?