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By Edward L. Daley On September 23, 2004, Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress. Below are some excerpts from that speech, and the hurried and predictably pessimistic response to it by John F. Kerry from a firehouse in Columbus Ohio. I am also including a few other recent statements by Senator Kerry concerning the Iraq War, the alternative positions of President Bush, and my own comments (preceded by the * symbol) regarding the issues raised. Furthermore, flecked throughout this article are quotes from several historical figures, added for the purpose of sharpening...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A U.N. envoy proposed Wednesday that the U.S.-appointed Governing Council cease to exist June 30 and said the United States should surrender sovereignty to a "caretaker" government of respected Iraqis. U.N. Undersecretary-General Lakhdar Brahimi said the new government should be led by a prime minister, a president and two vice presidents until elections are held in January. The proposed new structure would give Washington a way to dissolve the fractious and unpopular 25-member Governing Council named by the United States. Brahimi's proposals came as Iraq's U.S. administrators have been anxious to show progress on the political...

Wolfowitz: I'll try to be brief. Q: We've heard that before. Wolfowitz: You've heard it before. [Laughter] Anyway, I think the Arabic that we kept hearing today is "Al Iraq al Jedid", "The New Iraq", and it seems to me it is very significant that that is in a lot of people's minds including that officer who was saluting us down at the Northern Iraq Training Center and the people we've talked with today. I found the whole ceremony at the House of Hope extremely moving. The suffering that these people have been through is obviously dramatic. The needs are...

The phrase "New Iraq" is on the lips of many in this city. Kirkuk is in many ways a microcosm of the country. The city has incredible wealth in oil nearby. It has an educated work force. It has water. It also has grinding poverty, an infrastructure in need of serious repair and a population scarred by 35 years of dictatorship. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz met with members of the city council during a whirlwind tour of Iraq. The seven men and one woman on the council spoke their minds. Kirkuk has all of the nationalities represented in Iraq...

The author of a book on rebuilding Iraq was arrested at Kennedy International Airport for allegedly smuggling stolen 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian artifacts out of Baghdad, authorities said Saturday. Joseph Braude, author of "The New Iraq," was released on a $100,000 bond after a preliminary appearance Saturday before U.S. Magistrate Roanne L. Mann at the Brooklyn federal courthouse. Braude, 28, was arrested Friday night after arriving at the Queens airport on a flight from London, said U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf. Braude actually brought the priceless stolen artifacts into the United States on June 11, she said. Braude bought the three ancient pieces...

Powell and Europeans See U.N. Role in Postwar Iraq RUSSELS, April 3 — The United States and its European allies proclaimed today that they had reached a broad consensus that the United Nations should play a significant role in the postwar reconstruction of Iraq, but they remained divided over many of the details of how extensive that role should be. After a long day of back-to-back meetings between Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and the foreign ministers of 23 European countries, it was apparent that many of the differences that divided the allies over going to war against Iraq...