Word: vacuumed
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...determination to claim for the first time a say in Iraq's future commensurate with their number. It was an impressive end to two weeks of organizing in which local imams around the country, acting on orders from the central religious authority at Najaf, moved to fill the power vacuum left by the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. By creating militia and community organizations that have stopped looting and restored basic services, they have demonstrated their centrality to the project of stabilizing Iraq - the organizational ability and moral influence of the Shiite clerics makes them, or at least their...
...Regardless of whether the United Nations supported the war against Iraq, the U.S. military has destroyed Iraq’s dictatorship and there is a power vacuum that must be filled by a new government that can be trusted by the people of Iraq and by foreign leaders. It is the U.N., not the U.S., that has credibility and support from the people of Iraq, its neighbors and many of America’s allies. The U.N. is the best body to provide leadership and power for the fledgling new government in Iraq, and the U.S. is obliged to pull...
...planners had hoped that some resistance hero might surface during the fight or that top army officers would defect to form the nucleus of a new regime. Neither happened, and now dozens of powerful tribes, religious organizations and ethnic groups, as well as exiles, are jockeying to fill the vacuum. The U.S. has to be careful. It's just possible that the worst thing Washington could do is handpick a winner, who would be tainted as an American puppet. The dangers of that were apparent in Najaf, where the mob murder of a pro-American Shi'ite cleric last week...
...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...