Re: I don't see why it shouldn't be delayed (or stopped)
There have been some in government calling for it though - like the ones who wanted to pull Iran's country code and hand it over to people suing them.
It is only a matter of time before dimwittery wins out and something stupid like that is seriously considered or even happens.
Nonetheless, ICANN needs much stronger controls in place before it should become independent of the US. At least under the US there's some sort of check on their more extreme behavior, who knows what sort of crackpot moneymaking schemes they'll come up with for more top level domains, selling off single letter domains, probably lots of stuff I never even considered is being planned in secret for when they win their freedom.
