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As I read through this I am reminded of our history where we started out as federation then moved to strong central government over 14 year (approx). It is amazing there plan of for the begining of a government in 4 weeks.

A sprited debate also benifited our growth, remember alexander hamilton liked to have a dule every so often. See article below:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/900178.asp?0bl=-0
Iraqi groups OK next political step
MSNBC News Services


Iraq on Monday took its biggest political step since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, with 250 delegates from inside and outside Iraq agreeing to hold a national conference within four weeks to choose an interim government.

"ALL EFFORTS should be made to hold a national conference within four weeks ... to select a transitional Iraqi government," they said in a statement read at the end of a nearly 10-hour meeting in Baghdad with Jay Garner, the retired U.S. general who is the U.S. civil administrator in Iraq.
The delegates agreed on the four-week schedule by a show of hands.

Shiite and Sunni Muslim clerics in their robes, Kurds from the north, tribal chiefs in Arab headdresses and Westernized exiles in expensive suits all assembled for the one-day political conference, the second in a series expected to extend well into May.

"We hope we can form a unified government, one that reflects the entire spectrum of Iraq," Ahmad Jaber al-Awadi, a representative of the newly formed Iraqi Independent Democrats Movement, said as the talks started.

Notably absent from the talks was Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the pro-U.S. Iraqi National Congress umbrella group, although other INC members attended.

SHIITE COUNCIL OKS REFERENDUM
One prominent exile, Saad al-Bazzaz, said many delegates had discussed the possibility of a "presidential council" of several members, rather than naming a single leader for Iraq.

Al-Bazzaz, a former Iraqi publisher, said he expected the discussions to eventually produce a "a sort of government, a sort of authority."

"I'm not expecting one person as president. I'm expecting a presidential council" of three to six members, said al-Bazzaz. "We have been discussing this, many of us."

Britain, the main U.S. ally in the war, was represented at the meeting by Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien, who told reporters he envisaged a process that would include a referendum on a new constitution.

This idea was welcomed in Tehran by a senior official of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the main group representing Iraq's majority Shiites.

The council sent a low-level delegation to the meeting after boycotting a similar but much smaller gathering in Nasiriyah on April 15.

Delegates at the first conference agreed on a set of 13 principles, among them that Iraq must be democratic, Saddam Hussein's Baath Party must be dissolved and a future government should be organized as a federal system -- the last point an acknowledgment of the difficulty of centrally governing a land and society divided among Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Kurds and Arabs.

SECURITY A PRIORITY
Other delegates focused on the need -- first -- for security in a country where the U.S.-British invasion and ouster of the Saddam government three weeks ago touched off a rampage of looting, arson and general lawlessness.

"The lack of security threatens our newborn democracy. Security must be restored for this experience to survive," Saadoun Dulaimi, a returned exiled politician, told fellow delegates.

Delegates also thanked U.S.-led forces for ousting Saddam but insisted Iraqis must now run their own affairs. One warned that factional infighting could mean civil war.

After an opening reading from the Quran, the approximately 250 delegates, who included a few women, were welcomed by Garner. The meetings are aimed at "a democratic government which represents all people, all religions, all tribes," said Garner, who plans to oversee the immediate reconstruction of Iraq, then hand over to an interim government before a democratic election.

Garner noted that the day, April 28, was the fugitive Saddam's 66th birthday, for many years an Iraqi holiday filled with official celebration and enforced adulation of the authoritarian leader, who was "unanimously" endorsed by voters over the years in unopposed "elections."

On a downtown street, an Iraqi air force colonel, Hussein al-Khafaji, took note of how different this birthday was.

"Whenever we had those elections for president, everyone voted for him 100 percent," he told a reporter. "And today nothing will happen, and this will prove that none of us liked him, not a one."

SMALL PROTEST; 'MAYOR' HELD
Several hundred demonstrators staged a rally in the capital to protest that Shiite leaders from the holy city of Najaf were not adequately represented at the talks.

A few of the demonstrators carried banners in support of Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi, the former exile who declared himself mayor of Baghdad but was arrested by U.S. forces on Sunday.

A senior U.S. military commander, Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, ruled out releasing Zubaidi quickly. "He's a criminal. He's broken multiple laws, from theft to intimidation."

A U.S. statement said Zubaidi had been detained because of "subversive" activities that included telling people they could not return to work without his approval.

His capture reflected U.S. determination to brook no interlopers in its effort to build a consensus for administering Iraq. Timed just before the high-profile conference, it sent a clear message: Don't meddle.

Al-Zubaidi was a returned exile associated with the Iraqi National Congress who had declared himself mayor of Baghdad without sanction from U.S. occupation authorities. U.S. Central Command on Sunday accused him of "subversion."

POWER CRISIS
The government talks are being pursued as Baghdad and other areas only slowly return to some normalcy.

In Baghdad, power is still out to about half the population, said Maj. Gen. Carl Strock, chief engineer for Garner's office.

Strock said he could not predict when Iraqi crews would have full power restored. The power shortage has crippled Baghdad, idling pumps for distributing clean water and for treating sewage, giving looters the cover of darkness in some areas and keeping most shops closed.

Baghdad residents have grown increasingly restless from living without electricity, running water, telephone service or sewage disposal.

Anger and anti-American sentimentflared white-hot Saturdayafter a U.S.-held weapons cache laden with 80 Iraqi missiles exploded on the edge of Baghdad, killing at least six people and showering homes for miles around with warheads, rockets and mortars.





The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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