In U.S. occupied Iraq, in which the U.S. military keeps an Iraq government in power in its heavily secured Green Zone, frustrations with that government are mounting. The Iraqi people have little voice in its affairs, and are living with electricity just 4 hours a day at best, no clean water, no sewage treatment, little medical care and little schooling for their children. The unemployment rate is a staggering 40-50%.
But emboldened by peaceful protesters overthrowing the Egyptian government, an overthrow the U.S. says it supports, for the 2nd time in 3 days, on Wednesday in Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, peaceful protesters took to the streets to make demands on the government. They want services such as clean water, regular electricity and an honest government, responsive to them.
In reply, they were fired on. Three protesters lay dead and 55 were wounded. The government claimed some protesters set ablaze government buildings and they had no choice while protesters claim the buildings were burned in anger after the gunfire.
But whether from watching the peaceful overthrow of the Egyptian government or in sympathy with the Kut attack, Iraqis have begun protesting.
In northern Iraq, in Sulaymaniya, protesters marched outside Kurdish President Massoud Barzani's offices. The government claimed some protesters threw rocks at the building and opened fire on them. Two people were killed and 47 were wounded.
While in the southern city of Basra, Iraq's second largest city, 600 people gathered peacefully in front of the government offices. There were no reports of injuries.
It is my hope that the Iraqi people can peacefully unite, as happened in Egypt, to overthrow the corrupt and incompetent government and rid itself of its American occupier. But whatever happens, that there is an end to the violence that has permeated Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March, 2003 and that its people can live in peace and prosperity.
Dick
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