Bush administration’s justifications for invading Iraq are thinning out. The rights of Iraqi women are about to be set back by nearly 50 years because of new family law provisions inserted into a draft of the constitution. These would make Koranic law the supreme authority on marriage, divorce and inheritance issues. Even secular women from Shiite families would be stripped of their right to choose their own husbands, inherit property on the same basis as men and seek court protection if their husbands desert them. Less severe laws would be imposed on Sunni women. That is not only offensive, but also impractical. Crucial personal freedoms that survived a dictatorship are about to be lost under a democratic government. Is this the kind of freedom Bush wants in the Middle East? And women are not the only ones to lose out. The Sunnis continue to be treated with contempt and suspicion. Only a few Sunnis have been included in the committee working on the new constitution. The Sunnis will not be encouraged either by the destructive antics of Ahmad Chalabi, the deputy PM, who has advocated barring former Baathists from official employment. The news from Iraq is dominated by suicide bombers. Occasionally, the smoke clears for a day or two to reveal the underlying picture. That looks even scarier. — The New York Times