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Iraqi Shi'ites Demand Regime Change
(Ha'aretz) Zvi Bar'el - For over a month now, Iraqi Shi'ite youth have been flooding the streets, staging sit-down strikes in front of government buildings, and demanding regime change. There is criticism and protest by some against Iran and anger at the Shi'ite militias. These are young people with nothing to lose. Most of them have been unemployed for months. Some are university graduates who can't make a living, purchase an apartment, or start a modest business. The country with such huge potential for wealth and some of the largest oil reserves on earth has bled billions of dollars into the private pockets of the well-connected: senior ruling party officials, contractors who received small fortunes for projects that were never built, and army commanders who lied about the number of soldiers in their units just to sweep their salaries into their own pockets.