Welcome to the beginning of the end of Iraq's post-Saddam era
For Iraq’s youth, it’s been a failure.
Slightly more than a year after US forces deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, on June 28, 2004, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice passed President George Bush a note that Iraqi sovereignty had been transferred back to Iraqis. Bush wrote in reply, "Let freedom reign!"
Not many would say freedom has reigned in post-Saddam Iraq. Iraq is now in its seventh week of popular uprisings calling for a change of government. Iraqi security forces have killed at least 350 people and wounded 15,000, with large numbers being abducted by unknown militias.
Now, 16 years after Saddam’s overthrow, freedom is getting a second wind thanks to Iraq’s youth.
The question is whether Iran, its agents of influence and Iraq’s calcified ruling class will allow Iraq to enter a new, post-sectarian era in which governance and nationalism trump identity politics.
