I think there is one extremely important takeaway from all of this: > At the heart of the protesters demands is an end to the political quota system, which was

I think there is one extremely important takeaway from all of this: > At the heart of the protesters demands is an end to the political quota system, which was put in place after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and sees positions shared out between sects. I am unfamiliar with the situation in Iraq, but the same shit was done onto Bosnia and Kosovo. Both quasi-countries with quasi-governments, dysfunctional to the core, their corrupt elites kept in power by central powers in the US and EU to perpetuate the geopolitical status quo. By doing so they artificially keep the population from progressing, economically as well as socially. Parliaments are turned into dysfunctional chessboards for every power but the local people. It's pretty obvious that this 21st century type of state building isn't much different from classic colonialism. Some people involved might want only the best for the locals, but then again so did the colonialists in their perverse ways. Countries simply cannot be build without self determination and democracy. Quotas and veto powers are inherently anti-democratic.