Can a PR Front Group Run Iraq?

PR Watch has previously written about the origins of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) as a PR front group created by the Rendon Group, which has nevertheless become the Bush administration's preferred source for "intelligence" about Iraq. Now an internal fight is bubbling over INC's plan to actually become the government of Iraq after a U.S. invasion. The INC's Ahmad Chalabi wants to "declare a provisional government when the war starts," a plan that has "alienated some of Mr Chalabi's most enthusiastic backers in the Pentagon and in Congress, who fear the announcement of a provisional government made up of exiles would split anti-Saddam sentiment inside Iraq." Other opponents of Saddam Hussein, such as Iraqi political exile Kamil Mahdi, warn that "the objective of the US is to have regime change without the people of Iraq. ... The prevalent Iraqi opinion is that a US attack on Iraq would be a disaster, not a liberation."