Blowback: The unintended, negative consequences of one’s actions. The phrase came from WWI when poison gas launched by one side blew back upon them when the wind shifted.
The document proposes an explicitly Islamic state with a strong Shiite Muslim identity and less progressive laws for women than existed under Saddam Hussein. It also would give sweeping powers and potentially considerable oil revenue to newly created federal regions to use as they see fit. Those provisions, critics say, could deepen the country’s ethnic and sectarian divides.
In other Iraq news
Calif. troops accused of extortion, abuse in Iraq.
Iraqi PM calls for speedy withdrawal of US troops.