What type of government do the Iraqis want?

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With the civil war of recent years, the recent killing of Qassem Soleimani, and the Iraqi Parliament voting to expel all foreign troops, I am led to the following question:

What type of government system do the Iraqis want?

Do they want a secular, Western-style democracy? A return to Baathism? A Sunni- or Shia-dominated theocratic state a la Iran?

The Iraqis, like the Europeans, are not a monolithic group, so saying what they all want is difficult, if not impossible.

The "civil war" was (and still is) next door, in Syria. But one faction in Syria invaded Iraq (namely ISIS).

Iraq was cobbled together as an artificial country out of pieces of the collapsed Turkish Ottoman Empire at the end of the first world war.

Its never really functioned well as a unit, and when it ever did function it took brute force (either by the British occupiers, or by the native dictator).

There are different ethnic groups. The majority are Shiite Arabs (ethnically Arab but religiously allied to the Iranians next door). But minority of Sunni Arabs dominated the country before, and during the reign of Saddam Hussein. And then there are the Kurds in the north. The Kurds are our most fervent allies, and have helped us the most in fighting America's enemies (Saddam when he ruled Iraq, and then in fighting ISIS). So the impulse of Washington has always been to support Kurdish dreams of autonomy from Bagdad. The trouble is this....though the Kurds are the enemies of our enemies, they are ALSO...the enemies of friends. ISIS and Teheran and Assad of Syria hate them, but so do our NATO allies the Turks, and the current Iraqi government that we installed to replace Saddam is just as much at loggerheads with them as Saddam was. An independent Kurdistan in the north of Iraq would inspire Kurds in neighboring Syria and Iran to break away (no love lost by us), but would ALSO inspire Kurds in Turkey to rise up (threatening the NATO alliance itself).

So the answer to your question is this: "please ask a better question".

You need to break it down by asking "what do Iraqi Kurds want?", "what do Iraqi Arab Sunnies want?", and "what do Iraqi Shiite Arabs want?". And then ask "is it possible for the three major groups to cooperate?".

And, as Fnord says, individuals WITHIN each of those groups probably vary. Some, with Western education, do have notions of a western style democracy taking root. Others may crave some kind of theocratic dictatorship, or a secular dictatorship. Some resent the open ended US presence on their soil, but some probably do not resent it.

It might be safe to say that the Iraqis want a stable, secure government without American presence or influence.

their own.

Perhaps Iraq should be split into three nations: a Sunni Arab state, a Shia Arab state and a Kurdish state.

One that the US has no say in.

Perhaps a 3 republics-within-a-republic thing, like Bosnia?

That, or separate countries.

Belgium is also divided into two countries within a country: the French speaking south, and the Flemish speaking north.