June 1, 2004 - It is June 1, 2004 and the transfer of what President Bush calls “full sovereignty” is only 29 days away. Apparently the Iraqi people or at least the people of the Iraqi Governing Council are taking the President at his word. For a week now the United States as represented by L. Paul Bremer, has been pushing the IGC to name Adnan Pachachi, the US choice, as Iraq’s interim President. But the IGC had its own choice, Sheik Ghazi al-Yawar. Bremer, presumably speaking for the President of the United States, threatened to veto the IGC choice if it did not choose Pachachi. Having already acquiesced in the choice of Dr Allawi, a CIA asset, as the Interim Prime Minister of Free Iraq the IGC balked. Today the Bush Administration backed down.

Mr. Pachachi announced that he did not want the job – saving face for Ambassador. Bremer and President Bush. The IGC met and anointed Sheik Yawar as its nominee as Interim President of Free Iraq and Bremer apparently approved the choice. As the IGC met the air was rent by the rattle of gunfire, the crash of explosions and the roar of American warplanes as the US fought off an attack on the Green Zone. The military insurrection rumbled on as the Administration surrendered to the political insurrection as the IGC called Bremer’s bluff and America’s Viceroy folded his hand.

Increasingly members of the US appointed IGC are growing restive with the American occupation and increasingly they are speaking out. One IGC member who had been disillusioned by the US role in the process of selection Iraq’s new government said of Bremer and UN representative Brahimi. “They don’t believe in Democracy.” On Sunday Bremer had told the IGC that they had no right to select the new government and that they did not speak for the Iraqi people. If the members of the IGC do not speak for the Iraqi people then why were they appointed? If they do not speak for the Iraqi people then the legitimacy of the Interim Constitution under which the interim government of Free Iraq is being formed is suspect.

The rebellion of the members of the IGC even while the armed resistance goes on with undiminished intensity is a bright spot in a dark sky. Iraqis, even those carefully selected by the American occupation, are beginning to believe that they have passed into a new era of national responsibility. Having set in motion a process by which Iraqis may assert their sovereign right as a free people to govern themselves, the revolt has given the United States the opportunity to embrace those principles to which our President has given lip service and step aside.

Events in the coming weeks will demonstrate whether the Bush Administration is willing to do so. Events will show just what George W. Bush means when he promises Full Sovereignty.