The situation in Iraq has been bad. The government in Baghdad has struggled to assert control over a long-divided country, but these efforts have been undermined by deep religious and social divides, and the desire by the ruling Shiites to exact revenge for injustices committed during the long period of Sunni minority rule. Sectarianism has fragmented the country. The Islamic State radicals have grabbed swaths of territory and imposed brutal rule. Corruption has been a cancer on the country.

There was hope that the replacement of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by Haider al-Abadi in 2014 would put an end to the rot. Maliki was considered to have been especially corrupt and biased in favor of his fellow Shiites, both of which doomed attempts to forge a sense of national unity. Unfortunately, Abadi's efforts to clean up government have been thwarted by the political quota system that protects the interests of politicians and their followers. The result has been political chaos in Baghdad that peaked last week with the occupation of the parliament and threats of worse. Iraq is at an inflection point.

The Green Zone is the heavily fortified 10-sq.-km international center of Baghdad, where foreign embassies as well as the parliament and other key government offices are located. It was the home of the invasion forces that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003 and has been sealed off to ordinary Iraqis ever since. It has, predictably, become the symbol of the distance between the Iraqi state and its citizens. While subject to regular rocket and mortar attacks, the Green Zone had never been overrun by protesters or attackers, until last Saturday.