<What does this mean? It means that Hakim wants Iraq's laws to be based at least partly on Islamic sharia law, which rules out many behaviors tolerated in the West. Haidar Abbas, a leader of the Dawa party, told me in a similar vein that he would oppose Western-style laws that prohibit discrimination against homosexuals or legalize prostitution.

If Iraq ends up with a government where women vote, drive, go to college, and participate in business, and nobody is burning Christian churches or synagogues, or blowing up people they don't like, or jailing people for their beliefs--

--but Playboy, X-rated movies and bikinis are illegal--

I would be willing to chalk it up as a net victory. Obviously, there's a lot of room between a full-bore liberal Western democracy and a theocratic Taliban-type tyranny. Iraq could end up anywhere in there.