Future of Iraq being worked out on three continents

The next few days will be critical on three fronts if there is to ultimately be a successful transition of Iraq from a dictatorship to an occupied country to a democratic nation.
In Iraq, a new interim president was named, Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer. While he has been an outspoken critic of the U.S. occupation, he does not seem anti-American. He has studied in the United States and has denounced violence against U.S. forces. The prime minister, Iyad Allawi, a longtime, CIA-backed opponent of Saddam Hussein , said one of the new government's first priorities will be negotiating an agreement that will permit the United States and other militaries to remain in Iraq.
Meanwhile, at the United Nations, the status of coalition forces in Iraq is also being debated by the Security Council. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari will be in New York to press for full sovereignty of the new Iraqi government.
The United States and Britain have already made important concessions, presenting a plan that would hand over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government June 30, give the new government control of the Iraqi army and police, and end the U.N. mandate for a multinational force by January 2006.
Still, Russia and Germany added their concerns to those expressed earlier by China, France, Algeria and Chile.
European theater
While diplomatic wrangling will be going on at the United Nations, President Bush is headed for Europe, where he will have an opportunity to make his case to European critics of the war under the most favorable of circumstances. The president will be in Rome for the 60th anniversary of its liberation by U.S. troops and then head to Normandy for the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
Bush will have a long meeting followed by a working dinner with French President Jacques Chirac. Chirac will be at Normandy, as will German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It is a forum that will remind everyone attending of the shared interests of the allies during World War II and the strong and mutually beneficial alliances that were built between the former Allied and Axis powers during reconstruction following the war.
Where would Europe be, indeed, where would the world be, if the United States had not taken the initiative after World War II, most notably with the Marshall Plan, to rebuild the war-torn nations of the 1950s?
Perhaps in that context, our closest allies, who have been less than supportive of or even antagonistic toward U.S. policy in the Middle East, will see the wisdom in joining the effort to rebuild Iraq and bring security to its people.