Doomsday: Iraq

Updates

November 18, 2015: Russian plane brought down by ISIS bomb on plane; seven coordinated simultaneous attacks in Paris with 129 killed; scores injured, and President Obama calls it a "set-back" and SecState Kerry says ISIS has a "rationale" for what they are doing.
 

Original Post

 

Let's see: the last of the US troops left just this past week. It's not even the end of 2011, and we are starting to see a) the implosion of Iraq; b) to be followed by the takeover of Iranian sympathizers.

First this: "dozens die as 14 bombs explode across Baghdad"; probably just celebratory fireworks gone awry; certainly the Iraqis, the new democracy, is not returning to its old ways

Then this: Biden calls Obama --- oh, wrong story, Iraqi's deputy prime minster calls the Iraqi prime minister, Mr Maliki, a "dictator" -- well, is he?

On the same day that U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq, two events unfolded in the country, heralding a new chapter of political crisis.

On that day, Mutlak’s Al Iraqiya bloc walked out of parliament, blaming Maliki for what they described as the increasing marginalization of Al Iraqiya.

They also criticized issuance of an arrest warrant against the country’s vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, who is also a member of Iraqiya; Hashimi has been accused of involvement in November’s bombing of parliament.

From the Wall Street Journal, Maliki says government about to splinter (C.I.V.I.L. W.A.R.)

Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned that a challenge to his government by Sunni politicians could destroy the ethnic and sectarian power-sharing system that underpins Iraq's democracy—and take more power into the hands of the Shiite majority.

The threat signals the most dire political crisis Iraq has faced since an agreement on a governing coalition one year ago smoothed over a long-running conflict that has re-emerged with the official pullout this month of U.S. forces from Iraq.

The latest faceoff was triggered when a judicial panel issued a warrant for the arrest of Sunni Arab Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi....

This will be an entertaining story to watch.