[Rudaw] Protesters in Iraq are refusing to participate in demonstrations supporting the expulsion of US forces, citing their necessity for Iraq’s safety.
Sajad, 26, has been camped in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square since late October.
Iraqis have been protesting in central and southern parts of Iraq for more than 100 days, demanding real changes in the country and threatening to topple the political class that has held power since 2005.
He expressed doubt over the popularity of protests calling for the withdrawal of US troops, a topic which has been hotly discussed following a recent rise in US-Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
tensions.
"I think 75% of the protesters in Iraq, including me, won’t participate in the demonstration to expel US troops," Sajad told Rudaw English on Thursday.
"The Iranian-backed militias, such as Kataib Hezbollah, al-Nujaba, and Asaib Ahl al-Haq have to be expelled to Iran before expelling the American troops," he added.
Iraq’s influential Shiite holy man Moqtada Tater al-Sadr
 ...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, though lately he's gagged over some of their more outlandish antics...
on Tuesday called on his supporters and Iraqi protesters to conduct large-scale demonstrations against the presence of American troops on January 24.
Sadr’s call follows a non-binding resolution passed by the Iraqi parliament asking the Iraqi government to end the presence of the US-led Global Coalition against Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) forces.
"[The] US troops presence in Iraq is very important for our protection," Sajad added. "If the US troops {are] expelled now, we as protesters will be the biggest losers, as Iranian-backed militias will kill all of us in days."
As of December, more than 511 protesters and members of security forces have been killed and around 17,000 more maimed since protests began on October 1, according to Human Rights Watch.
Omer, 28, a protester from Nasiriya, in southern Iraq's Dhi Qar province has also decided not to participate in the scheduled demonstrations.
"I won’t participate in the demonstration to expel the US troops in Iraq because I think it will affect our main protests and demands," Omer told Rudaw English on Thursday.
"If this protest happens it will negatively affect our peaceful demands and will weaken our movement," he added, fearing that festivities will erupt if Sadr’s rallies reach Tahrir Square.
In a Thursday tweet, Sadr called for demonstrations to continue, saying that popular protests and calls for the expulsion of the US troops from Iraq have "the same aim."
Abdul-Rahman, 31, a protester from Karbala takes a different approach, deciding to participate in the demonstrations to protest both the US and Iranian presence in his country.
"I will go to the protests and participate, but I will chant for the expulsion of US troops and the Iranian-backed militias from Iraq," Abdul-Rahman said.
Foreign influence in Iraq has been a key point of anger for protesters, who have torched Iranian consulates on various occasions.
Iraq is currently playing battlefield to skyrocketing US-Iran tensions, with the US conducting Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM! ...
s on Iranian and Iran-backed targets in Iraq in response to a spate of rocket attacks against bases hosting US forces in the country, and Iraqi bases hosts US troops are being targeted frequently.
The US and Iran are at loggerheads over a number of issues, including Iranian adventurism through its Shiite proxies across the region. However,
a woman is only as old as she admits...
Tehran and Washington have both signaled that they do not want further military confrontation in Iraq and in the region in general. 
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