Very well said. In addition to lack of organized leadership from protestor side, we have left a vacuum for our neighboring countries to direct the protest in alignment with their regional interests. Social media platforms are the double-edged sword here as well.
Lack of progress in government-protestors dialogue may empower those who wish for a violent confrontation between the two and bring more repression than reform;
"Reducing Saddam-era regulatory hostility towards private business isn't a new idea in Iraq. It was discussed in the 2005 National Development Strategy. The difficulty is that each piece of bureaucratic redtape has its defender because it enables some official to extract a bribe"