According to the World Bank, 16 percent of Iraqi youths are unemployed. There is widespread feeling among Iraqis that their country has failed to offer them a decent life. Iraqi protesters burn items to block the road as they clash with security forces during a demonstration in the Shiite shrine city of Karbala, south of Iraq's capital Baghdad on October 27, 2019. Most of the demonstrators have taken to the streets to express their frustrations over corruption, a lack of access to public services, and a shortage of job opportunities. With the ongoing protests in the country having led to more than 100 deaths, it looks like Iraq is stepping into a new cycle of instability.Īlthough the protests were triggered by the demotion of a celebrated general, economic grievances appear to be a more important cause of the unrest. Instead of progress and prosperity, post-invasion Iraq has witnessed cycles of violence and instability. Bush's rhetoric is laughable in retrospect. Bush said that a free Iraq would be an example of progress and prosperity for the region. In the lead up to the invasion of Iraq by the U.S.-led coalition that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein in 2003, then U.S.

Isis iraq