AMID THE CONFUSION that exists in Iraq right now, one thing is clear. Bush and his administration have paid far more attention to the military side of the Iraqi equation than the rebuilding side. So far, the administration has designated just one individual, Zalmay Khalilzad, a special assistant to the National Security Council, to serve as envoy to the various Iraqi opposition groups. " He’s one guy on the National Security Council ... without a staff, " says Francis Brooke, a long-time political advisor to the INC who spoke to the Phoenix from Northern Iraq. " When you consider the political future of Iraq is really the critical question — we’re going to win the war — [the political side] is a little underemphasized in the current administration. We need more people and we need better people. "

As an example, Brooke cites the US government's failure to help the INC add 65 additional members to the group’s consultative council. (That's important because the council would likely serve as the precursor to any kind of legitimate Iraqi provisional government.) The group’s current council has 65 people on it, but INC members want to add the names of 65 more members who currently reside within Iraq. " We’re fully aware of people who would make good additions to it, " says Brooke. " There’s no one in the United States who has even the first name of somebody who would make a good addition to it. "

Still, the INC is positioning itself for success in a post-Hussein Iraq. It has been an important opposition group working with the American military in the event of war. As of Tuesday, INC troops had plans to enter territory controlled by Hussein as soon as hostilities began. An armed contingent of the group is based at a bunker near the strategic Dokan Dam, which controls the power and water supply to the city of Irbil, in Northern Iraq. Working in concert with some 20 operatives of the CIA and 120 Special Operations Group forces, the INC hopes to play a military role in the removal of Saddam Hussein from power. " We are mobilizing to move South, " Brooke said. " We have people deployed from here to Baghdad. We fully expect to be in Baghdad before the American forces. "

Meanwhile, Kanan Makiya, an INC official who worked closely with the US State Department in writing " The Future of Iraq Project, " a blueprint for a democratic Iraq, spoke at the National Press Club on Monday. (He's also a professor at Brandeis University who has written two books detailing the totalitarian horrors of Hussein’s regime: Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq [University of California Press, 1998], under the pseudonym Samir al-Khalil, and Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising and the Arab World [Norton, 1999].) Makiya outlined efforts being taken by the INC to disrupt the Iraqi dictator. " There’s activity in the streets actually every night in Baghdad, " Makiya said. " There are operations going on there, propaganda being disseminated, there are people being encouraged ... to discourage their sons, their fathers, their cousins from doing anything during the war. " (Makiya made international news when he denounced a Pentagon plan to rule Iraq militarily, in a February piece in the London Observer.)

Will the INC’s efforts ultimately be significant? During World War II, the entry into Paris of General De Gaulle and the Free French played an integral role in helping to reconstruct the honor and dignity of France. It also gave De Gaulle the political legitimacy he needed to establish the Fourth Republic. The INC may have this in mind in making its dangerous dash to Baghdad. But military historians remember that even De Gaulle had to get his Paris jaunt approved by the American president, Franklin Roosevelt. The future of Iraq — and the INC — will be determined at least in part by President Bush. The coming days will determine if Bush’s commitment to democracy is real, and not merely rhetorical. How future generations view the current Iraq war will hinge on whether it results in Iraqi democracy, Saddamism without Saddam, or years of American occupation.

Seth Gitell can be reached at sgitell[a]phx.com