Word: vacuumed
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...General Garner warned ahead of Tuesday's meeting, if the U.S. or some form of Iraqi authority is not able to move quickly to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of Saddam's regime, "the vacuum gets filled in ways you don't want." But the precipitous collapse of the regime has unleashed dynamics beyond the control of U.S. planners. They had hoped to see an organized surrender of much of Saddam's army, which could allow a smooth and orderly transition. In the event, neither the coalition, nor the competing Iraqi opposition groups were prepared for the precipitous...
...Iraq's fractured political landscape, meanwhile, presents a major challenge to the U.S. troops currently filling the power vacuum. While Shiite protestors are keeping their anti-American attacks verbal, diehard Saddam loyalists and Arab jihadis who came to Iraq to help fight the invasion continue to target U.S. troops. Last week, some 300 suicide bomber explosive belts were found in Baghdad, and some 80 belts are believed to have been removed from the same cache before they were found. Tuesday's shooting in Mosul reportedly occurred after elements in the protesting crowd began shooting at the U.S. troops guarding...
...power struggle among Iraqis to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime may have claimed its first victim Thursday when Ayatollah Abdul Majid al-Khoei was stabbed to death by unknown assailants inside the Imam Ali Mosque, Shiite Islam's holiest shrine, in the city of An Najaf. According to press reports, al-Khoei was killed during a meeting with a rival cleric backed by Saddam's regime over control of the shrine. The reports said al-Khoei had gone to the aid of the regime-backed cleric who had been attacked by a crowd...
...wounded are a reminder that what was for the U.S. a relatively easy military campaign had nonetheless left thousands of civilian casualties. The mass looting of government offices and private businesses in different parts of the city also underscores the threat of chaos breaking out in the power vacuum left by the regime's collapse...
...only made the dire situation more acute. Lives have been overturned. Lack of water and electricity add new miseries to an already arduous existence. The U.S. would like to think that its presence as "liberators" will give them hope for better life here. For now, however, the power vacuum created by the elimination of the Baath party makes the effort futile - and it may even threaten the long-term chances of pulling this village from poverty...