A couple of days ago I featured a piece by Laith Kubba about the political process in Iraq. This article by Zvi Bar'el covers similar ground and gives more detail. His conclusion:
These quarrels, the absence of an elections law, the dearth of data on the number of citizens in Iraq, the question of the status of Iraqi exiles who have not yet returned home, and especially the deteriorating security situation, led to an American decision to try to create a "partially elected" transitional government as the least bad option. Now several further radical changes appear likely before any sort of democratic process will be feasible in the country. Saddam's capture looks more and more like drama and entertainment, compared with the stubborn political infighting that appears set to heat up in Iraq over the next few weeks.One thing the article brought home to me - though I'm probably a bit slow off the mark here - is that some of the difficulties now arising in Iraq have nothing to do with the Americans or the war. They would have been part of any post-Baathist reconstruction.