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BAGHDAD — Protesters stormed Iraq’s parliament on Saturday, bursting into the capital’s fortified Green Zone, where other key buildings, including the U.S. Embassy, are located.
Live footage on Iraqi television showed swarms of protesters, who have been demanding government reform, inside the parliament building, waving flags and chanting. Lawmakers were berated and beaten with flags as they fled the building, while demonstrators smashed the windows of politicians' cars.
Baghdad Operations Command declared a state of emergency and said all roads into the capital had been closed.
The surge of protesters into the secure area, which is off limits to most Iraqis, was the culmination of months of street protests. Under huge political pressure, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has attempted to reshuffle his cabinet and meet the demands of the demonstrators, who have been spurred on by the powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. But he has been hampered by a deeply divided parliament, where sessions have descended into chaos as lawmakers have thrown water bottles and punches at one another.
The bad news: The Iraqi gov't still has a long way to go, and working out a compromise between the Sunni's and the Shiite's will be a long, long struggle.
The good news: The Iraqi people are emboldened to push for change and reform, something you don't see much in the ME.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
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Originally Posted by Livejack
The bad news: The Iraqi gov't still has a long way to go, and working out a compromise between the Sunni's and the Shiite's will be a long, long struggle.
The good news: The Iraqi people are emboldened to push for change and reform, something you don't see much in the ME.
And the Constitution makes any of that America's problem in which Article?
I'm waiting for the GREAT news, American telling every country in the ME they can either learn to live together or they can die together, and leaving the area to its own people.
They've had their chance, when the Iraqi Army choses to run from battle it's time for America to cut the apron strings.
The bad news: The Iraqi gov't still has a long way to go, and working out a compromise between the Sunni's and the Shiite's will be a long, long struggle.
The good news: The Iraqi people are emboldened to push for change and reform, something you don't see much in the ME.
Is there really an "Iraqi people" at this time? To put it another way, how many Iraqi's place nationalism above sectarianism? Ten years ago, Crazy Uncle Joe Biden proposed that Iraq should be broken up into three separate states.
Nothing a few trillion dollars more in debt can't solve.
Vote Hillary.
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