Two foreign powers make kings in Iraq and decide who will sit on the "big chair"

[yota691]

 

Two foreign powers make kings in Iraq and decide who will sit on the "big chair"

 

 2021-10-14 06:30

 

Shafaq News/ The American newspaper "Washington Post" saw today, Thursday, that Iraqis are paying the price of elections "imposed on them" since 2003, while noting that two foreign powers make kings in Iraq and decide who will sit on the "big chair".

 

And according to a report of the newspaper, seen by Shafak News Agency,  since the United States led the international "coalition of the willing" to impose military regime change in Iraq in 2003, Iraqis have been invited to vote in their fledgling democracy six times, indicating that Iraqis have never obtained the democracy that they were promised out.

 

According to the "Washington Post", "Despite the low turnout, which does not indicate a broad popular mandate to rule, a coalition government will now be formed with effort, and the blocs with the largest number of seats will divide the spoils among themselves, led by Muqtada al-Sadr."

 

She added, "Since the 2005 elections, the quota system that divides power along ethnic and sectarian lines has tightened the noose around Iraqis, which has polarized society and created a sectarian environment."

 

With the political elites bickering over who would get the ministry and, more importantly, the ministerial budgets, they sought foreign sponsors to back their ploys, adding, "of course, the main foreign mediators were the United States and Iran."

 

And as if the sectarian civil war of 2006-2008 that ripped societies nearly irreparably apart wasn't enough, the country has also become a battleground between Washington and Tehran to fight or settle their differences.

 

As a result, and speaking to the newspaper, “most of the election results were imposed. The quota system created a series of weak governments, and ensured that only the prime minister was Shiite, the president was Kurdish, and the parliament speaker was Sunni, and no one could win an absolute majority either, and thus the parties would coalesce around Alliances based on interests are always directed by either the United States or Iran, and the two foreign powers can then act as kingmakers and decide who will sit in the big chair.

 

The newspaper added, “This system allowed the leader of the Shiite Islamic Dawa Party, Nuri al-Maliki, to remain in his high positions as prime minister or vice president for almost the entire period between 2006 and 2018, and al-Maliki was blamed as one of the primary instigators of sectarianism in Iraq, so it is not surprising A protest movement calling for an end to sectarianism, corruption and foreign interference took to the streets in 2019. It has remained in the squares sporadically since then, despite the Corona pandemic.

 

The newspaper stated, “The brutal treatment of this popular movement led to a mass boycott of this week’s unpopular elections, at least 600 protesters were killed, and this violence had the greatest impact, as it forced people to work underground; many reported that they are now relying on blockchain technologies. and decentralized VPNs to stay hidden and secure while they regroup.”

 

Very few Iraqis believe in democracy now, certainly “not the democracy that was imposed on us at gunpoint by the United States and its allies in 2003,” one said, adding, “These elections simply serve to define what we already know, which is Our vote will be used to justify the mirage of democracy, while a hand-picked group of elites will continue to profit while we suffer."

 

And the "Washington Post" concludes, saying: Amidst these deep systemic and structural problems, and with the continuing lack of justice, Iraqi politics is doomed to continue on its current path.