Time for Iraq and Lebanon to ditch state-sponsored sectarianism
Protesters rightly blame the system for producing disastrous results
AS MANY ARAB leaders have fallen in the past year as did during the Arab spring. And still the wave of protests over corruption, unemployment and threadbare public services continues to sweep across the Middle East and north Africa. Turnover at the top has not mollified the masses, because rather than producing real change it has reshuffled entrenched elites. Particularly in Iraq and Lebanon, many of the protesters now want to tear down entire political systems. It is a dangerous moment. Yet the protesters are right to call for change.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “System failure”
From the December 7th 2019 edition
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