Tension between the leaders of free Iraq and American officials, brewing for some time now, is about to come to a boil over a power struggle. The free Iraqis, working with minimal authority under the L. Paul Bremer-appointed Governing Council, are clamoring for more control over their own affairs. The Washington Post reported yesterday that the leader of the Iraqi National Congress and current president of Iraq, Ahmad Chalabi, said that the restoration of sovereignty to Iraq “would make the Americans look like liberators again” because “Iraqi people don’t understand the logic of occupation.” He also said more control of Iraq by Iraqis would reduce attacks against American troops.

That view of Iraqi governance seems to put Mr. Chalabi at odds yet again with Secretary of State Powell. The doubting Thomas when it comes to democratizing the Arab world, Mr. Powell was quoted over the weekend as warning against accelerating the transfer of more power to the Iraqis, saying that “it’s necessary” for America to continue “hanging on” and that it would be a mistake “to push this process too quickly.”

Mr. Powell and the State Department and have found themselves at loggerheads with Mr. Chalabi on an array of important issues. Foggy Bottom has been trying to stymie the efforts the Iraqi democrats for years. But as this war goes on, Mr. Chalabi has been looking more credible with every passing week. He been calling for the creation of an Iraqi-led security force to keep the peace long be fore the coalition finally took note and did so.

That the Iraqis want more control over their own affairs may seem petty, even naive, or, conversely an attempt at a power grab by opportunistic politicians. But Mr. Chalabi and his democratic allies have long argued for a quick transition stemming from the belief that there should be no gap in Iraqi sovereignty. They have warned for years that a prolonged occupation could be problematic. It’s not surprising that Iraqis know Iraq better than anyone else and that they are best equipped to solve its problems.

“The United states should not keep missing opportunities to become more popular in Iraq,” the director of the INC’s research bureau, Nibras Kazimi, told the Sun last night. “The daily grind of the occupation is very unpopular. Iraqis are saying ‘we can handle it,’ and the U.S. should trust us if they’re asking us to reciprocate.”

We will not win the war on terror without allies, and in Iraq we have Muslim and Arab allies ready to join us in our fight. The logic of working with them and bolstering American allied advocates of Iraqi democracy strikes us as overwhelming. The State Department has been dragging its feet on this issue almost from the day Congress passed and President Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, and it is long past time to put an end to the internecine squabbles that have given rise to that kind of recalcitrance. The Free Iraqi movement is still, as it has been all along, America’s best hope in a war that was aimed, after all, at liberating the country.