Since 17 February 2011, military forces have fired indiscriminately into crowds of unarmed demonstrators.  There have been hundreds of arrests, torture and disappearances of protest organizers, and empty promises made by government leaders.  Amnesty International has intervened and word came from a reliable source that a phone call from U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was able to pull government military troops off the streets and away from unarmed demonstrators.

This scenario is not in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Egypt, or Tunisia.  These events have been taking place in Kurdish north of Iraq, where people been just as active in their nonviolent uprising against a corrupt and repressive government, although their efforts have receive almost no coverage from major international media.