IRAQI DINAR NEWS STUDY: Articles Of Interest,THE IRAQI DINAR RV/RI And Pertinent Geopolitical Events
Channel: The Dinarian
Date: 2019-11-06

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The Fight for a New Iraq

The persistence and magnitude of protests in Iraq since early October and the brutality of Iraqi government forces and militias seeking to crush them have shaken the country. More than 275 protesters have been killed and thousands injured, but the protests continue unabated.

Iraqis initially protested against corruption, unemployment and the failure of the government to deliver services, but after a month of brutal state violence, the protesters have called for the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, a complete overhaul of the political process in the country and disbanding of powerful political factions and their militias, most of which are backed and run by Iran.

The Iraqi government and the political elite have failed to respond in any significant manner to the protesters. On Thursday, Barham Salih, the president of Iraq, promised to draft a new electoral law, claiming that it would allow more young people to join the political process and put an end to the current system of deal-making in government formation. He also promised to reform the country’s election commission by bringing in independent experts as its members. And yet these promises were quickly dismissed by protesters as too little, too late — cosmetic changes aimed at upholding a discredited political system.

Most of the protests are taking place in Shiiite-majority cities. The killing of more than 18 protesters in the holy Shiite city of Karbala last week highlight how Shiite-majority provinces of Iraq haven’t benefited from political parties using “Shiite identity” to gain and retain power.

The protests and the violent response have shredded the myth of sectarianism as the organizing principle for political power: State-sponsored sectarianism has failed to offer protection and progress to the citizens.

The trouble lies largely in the political system imposed on Iraq by the United States-led alliance in 2003, which fostered the lie that Iraqis did not have a unifying national identity and that their overriding identity was sectarian or ethnic: Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds. Apart from isolating the majority of Iraqis who believe in their national identity, these divisions also isolated Christians, Yazidis, Mandaeans and other minorities in Iraq.

In contrast, the young Iraqi protesters have been carrying the Iraqi flag and rejecting all other political and sectarian symbols. Iraqi patriotic songs that were sung in the 1980s during the war with Iran have filled the streets once more. The slogan that has resonated the most is, “We want a homeland,” calling for an Iraq that does not suffer from the ills of sectarian divisions or is manipulated by politicians. Another popular slogan insists, “I am going to take my rights myself.”

Rather than build on the principles of citizenship after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, the political class in Iraq since 2003 worked on a sectarian system of patronage to win political power and profit. It enshrined sectarian identity as an unwritten basis of power-sharing — a Shiite prime minister, a Kurdish president and a Sunni speaker of Parliament — solidifying sectarian divisions and undermining meritocracy or electoral legitimacy. Government formation has become a cynical exercise in power brokering based on coalition-building before and after the vote.

A significant section of the Iraqi political class’s being beholden to Iran makes things worse. Anger against Iranian influence over the political establishment of the country has increased significantly as credible reports have shown that a majority of killings have been carried out by the militias backed by Tehran.

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