An Iraqi constitution has bumped into existence.

* An Iraqi constitution has bumped into existence. The U.S.-appointed Governing Council that midwifed it had no obvious James Madisons in its midst. But, in fairness to the Iraqis, they, unlike our Constitution-writers, had to conduct their efforts in public (all the deliberations and the minutes of the Philadelphia Convention were secret; when one delegate left a document in public, George Washington, the presiding officer, blew his stack). The test of Iraq's constitution, like ours, will be in the near future, as it begins to operate. America's Bill of Rights, the first Judiciary Act, the financial system, and the precedents of the executive branch all took ten years to put in place. Iraqis have only old traditions of self-rule, and three wars and a brutal dictator in their more recent past. If their constitution provides some order, some decency, and some freedom, they will have done well indeed.