All's as it should be in Iraq. . .

Last week, I attended a talk by Jalal Talabani, Iraq's new president. It was, on the whole, a winning talk, aimed at convincing the audience that the US did the right thing by going to Iraq. He is quite a personable man, and I could tell that the (somewhat undiscerning) audience took to him immediately. Which, for my journalistic - in other words, excitement-craving - instincts, proved a little disappointing.

"You are our partners in our liberation from tyranny," he told the audience. "Now, we struggle side by side to fight facism and terrorism in Iraq." He highlighted the mass graves of women and children that were discovered in Iraq, one of the products of Saddam Hussein's regime, as one of the many reasons for the US and Iraq to continue to fight the "war on terror" together.

To those who opposed the US' involvement in Iraq, he said: "Please come to Iraq and see the mass graves with hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people."

"The forces of darkness want to take us back to our terrible past," he said. "They showed no remorse to any human suffering." An example, he said, was the exchange of congratulations between members of Al Qaeda after Hurricane Katrina.

Responding to calls by several Americans to the US government to withdraw from Iraq,or at least to set a timetable for withdrawal, Talabani said that doing so would prove to be a set back for the war effort. The presence of the UN and multinational forces is vital for democracy in Iraq and the Middle East, he said, until Iraq can stand on its own feet.

To those calling for a timetable for a pull-out, he said: "The US should set no timetable for withdrawal. It will encourage the terrorists, [lead them to conclude] that they can defeat a superpower. Withdrawal now or in the near future could lead to victory of tyranny in Iraq."

Speaking about the new Iraqi Constitution, Talabani addressed the conflict and troubles that Iraq has had in its drafting. The outcome of the drafting process is that nobody is entirely happy with the new Constitution, he said, but insisted that this is a good thing. "If anyone was completely happy, there would have been others who were completely unhappy, and it would have been a failure," he argued.

Talabani also said that it has taken longer to build a government in the new Iraq than it would have in the old Iraq. This is because the new Iraq is "a state based on the principle of inclusion, not exclusion," he said. "There must be no victors and no vanquished."

And in conclusion: "To the terrorists, I say, 'You will never win. Freedom will win in Iraq'."

His talk was a veritable journalist's dream, at least as far as succulent quotes and sound bites go. But it was obvious that it was a carefully crafted speech, designed to win over an American audience with mixed feelings about the US' role in Iraq.

Throughout Talabani's talk, it was clear that he was trying to soothe troubled waters, to convince the audience that things in Iraq are going well, despite all the problems and conflict still rife in the country. I think that, for the most part, his talk succeeded in at least moving the audience a little closer to acceptance of the view he presented. But whether they remain convinced as events continue to unfold in Iraq remains to be seen.

Talabani's ascendancy to the presidency of Iraq is clearly a victory for Iraq's Kurds, long marginalised under Saddam Hussein. The fact that he has been voted into such a position of power in Iraq also signifies a mandate for change in Iraq. And thus, when the US does get out of Iraq, it will, I imagine, leave with at least some of the credit for uniting a nation that has had several internal divisions, both in the north, with the Kurds, and in the south, with the Shiites.

But precisely because of this acceptance of Kurds in Iraq, relations between Iraq and Turkey, which still refuses to recognise Kurdistan, have soured considerably after Talabani came into power. That this hostility is present on both sides was very clear from a comment that Talabani made in response to a Turkish student's question. The student showed his own bias when, referring to a comment Talabani made about Kurdistan, he asked Talabani what he exactly he had meant.

Talabani's sharp retort: "I didn't create Kurdistan. God created Kurdistan. Just because you don't accept Kurdistan doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

It was amusing to see his diplomatic veneer slip ever so slightly, and that little bit of tension somewhat appeased my aforementioned need for excitement in an otherwise tame presentation.