State of their nation: Day 1

State of their nation: Day 1

By David Mac Dougall, Baghdad Bureau

This coming Saturday, Iraqis go to the polls. They’re choosing regional representatives in 14 out of Iraq’s 18 provinces. There’s little doubt that Iraqis are embracing democracy – the numbers speak for themselves: more than 14,000 candidates vying for just 444 council seats.

Each day this week we’re asking Iraqis what they think about a range of issues. Today, they speak out about taking control of Baghdad’s most famous piece of real estate the “Green Zone”. It had been under American control since 2003 but now the Iraqis are back in charge again. The Iraqi Government also took control of military operations here and in theory American forces can only conduct operations with the approval and cooperation of Iraqi troops. This new-found sovereignty marks a turning point for Iraq, after almost six years of de-facto Coalition control here, and we found a lot of people eager to talk about it.