The moment has been long in coming, but worth the wait for Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the largest Iraqi exile organization, the Iraqi National Congress.

Flown out of London by the United States, he appeared in southern Iraq as a representative of the “Free Iraqi Military,” donning army trousers and a slouch hat. Chalabi, who was long refused CIA support on the grounds that he could not be trusted, and who was once the object of an international embezzlement investigation, certainly comes with his own tainted record. But these are ripples in the past and apparently largely irrelevant in the face of his unrelenting fidelity to the likes of Cheney and Rumsfeld, who not only want to create a new Iraq, but an entire new order in the Middle East.

Those in the U.S. administration who are pushing for Chalabi seem unperturbed by the fact that, having left his native Iraq at the age of 11, he is actually little-known among the Iraqi people. One Gulf newspaper wrote with scorn that it is not a matter of his competence, as Chalabi would be incapable of running so much as a corner shop, but of papering over the common conception that Washington wants to control Iraq.

Showpiece politicians

Washington needs Iraqi showpiece politicians in order to paint a picture of a new beginning, possibly even before the end of the war. And this is indeed Washington’s greatest dilemma, even greater than the massive imponderability of the war. But it will do the U.S. little good if the perception is that it is parading representatives of the Iraqi exile group, who, Chalabi included are largely nurtured by the CIA.

Equally, the U.S. doesn’t view the Shiite opposition in Iranian exile as suitable, and so far there is no real sign of anyone in Iraq who enjoys both the respect and regard of the Iraqi, with the possible exception of the Kurdish leader in the north and the Shiite Ayatollah Seyyed al-Sistani in Najaf, who was placed under house arrest by Saddam Hussein and who significantly contributed to the reduction in fighting around this holy Shiite city.

Yet now that talk of a six-month U.S. occupation has turned into something in the realm of two years, the Washington clearly can't count on such allies remaining on its side, and will be left with no real alternative but to grasp the strings of puppets such as Chalabi and his like.

Right now Washington would do well to not to elbow its way to the forefront of the issue of post-Saddam Iraq, but to leave the rebuilding of the new country to the United Nations, who will be above suspicion everywhere apart from the White House, and who could even recruit suitable people from the once well-educated Iraqi population.

But, realistically, there is little chance that this will be the way of things. Even coming from British Prime Minister Tony Blair the suggestion fell on deaf American ears. Europe and, particularly, Germany would do well to continue supporting this idea, yet not so as to make it a condition for reconstruction aid, as that would serve only to punish Iraqi civilians, who after three wars and decades of dictatorship deserve something better.

Peter Philipp is Deutsche Welle's chief correspondent.