The incidents called into question Iraq's ability to effectively buffer and contain the Islamic State militant group and raised doubts about the country’s political stability 13 years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Q: How did this happen?
A: The protests were the culmination of months of street demonstrations incited by al-Sadr, the popular cleric who launched an uprising in 2004 against U.S. troops in Iraq. The protesters demand government reforms to stop corruption, wanting politically appointed ministers to be replaced with nonpartisan technocrats.
The incident also underscores long-simmering sectarian tensions that continue to brew since the 2003 invasion, said Steven Cook, a Middle East expert at the Council of Foreign Relations. Al-Sadr took advantage of political gridlock among the Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish lawmakers, who share power, to forward his own agenda, Cook said.
“It’s not about this specific demand,” Cook said. “It’s about a seizing an opportunity.”
Q: Why this matters to the USA?
A: The U.S. military ousted former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein in 2003 and oversaw the formation of the current government. The U.S. wants a stable Iraqi government that will continue fighting the Islamic State, which has taken control of a swath of territory in Iraq and neighboring Syria. Iraqi troops have been fighting the extremists in Mosul and other parts of Iraq.
Baghdad’s unraveling could also return the country to the sectarian conflicts that flared earlier this decade, sparking instability in the region and potentially staunching the flow of Iraq’s more than 4 million barrels of oil a day, said Kenneth Pollack, senior fellow with the Brookings Institute.
“If there’s civil war in Iraq, it could spread: Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,” he said. “These are scenarios that the United States does not want to see happen.”
Q: How can this impact the war on the Islamic State?
A: Iraq needs a stable political system in Baghdad to keep troops motivated in places like Mosul and Anbar Province in their fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS. The military has made strong gains but the political system continues to be in disarray and could threaten the overall strategy, Pollack said.
As the U.S. continues to scale back its presence in Iraq, less pressure is put on Iraqi lawmakers to work out their differences, he said.
“We now have a military campaign that’s doing quite well,” Pollack said. “The problem is the political side of this whole campaign is not making nearly the same progress.
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