As Ba'athists are mopped up and living infrastructure of the people are restored, the Americans are working to help Iraq to a democratic future:

The new top U.S. official in Iraq met for the first time Friday with the seven political leaders likely to form the core of a new government and said he found common ground on the way forward.

L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator, said they agreed on three priorities: restoring security, building democracy and rooting out the remnants of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

"It was a frank, open exchange — a very friendly and long discussion," he said.

The party's invitations included:

[Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party;] Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress; Jalal Talabani, leader of the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan; Iyad Allawi of the Iraqi National Accord; Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of the Shiite Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and the brother of influential Shiite Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim; Naseer al-Chaderchi and a representative of the Shiite group al-Dawa.

Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim is the fellow who has been based in Iran and presumably takes his orders and funds from Tehran - I'd consider him a latter-day version of Tokuda Kyuichi, the Japanese Communist leader who, after his release from prison on MacArthur's general orders, set about trying to foment Marxist rebellion. Al-Hakim's first priority, like Tokuda, may be to befriend the Allied occupation forces when he isn't stirring up dissent among Shiites. Though al-Hakim seems eager to legally fasten law with religious morality, he has made statements indicating a curiously flexible stance between theocracy and pluralism: desiring a strong presence of Islam in Iraq's governance but insisting that women play an "essential role" in consensual government.

Al-Dawa is another party flirting with Islamic rule, and one that apparently boasts ties (though quietly, these days) with Hezbollah.

Fortunately, I suspect that the White House is well aware of who he is and that the now-golden statement from Bush, essentially declaring that an Islamic state will not be tolerated, is supported by the will to retire anyone who attempts to undermine the democratization process.

Other members are, for all intents and purposes, appreciably far away from theocratic and terrorist-tainted ideologies. Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord is composed of former Ba'ath officials and military officers who have long opposed Saddam. They apparently don't get on well with my personal favorite - the inimitable, secular capitalist Ahmed Chalabi - which could mean differences in opinion that may damage the reconstitution process or else the foundation of a leftist, statist party.

Jalal Talabani is a proponent of a federalist Iraq that would allow for some degree of self-rule for the various divisions of government - the kind of decentralization that I would love to see.

Massoud Barzani has been reported in Arabist media to have made a few remarks that indicate a dour attitude to America's presence, but he wins the day's prize for powerful optimism:

Massoud Barzani...said the views of US and Iraqi leaders were "very close to each other, and in some cases they are identical".

Remember that in the States - the bastion of freedom and liberty - our politicians are daily at each other's throats. At this early stage in Iraq, Barzani's words are all we need to hear.