March 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq with “shock and awe.” While almost no one asserts that US involvement has led or will lead to victory for US interests, I learned from my eight years in the Middle East that the real story of Iraq is complicated. American involvement cannot be written off as an abject failure, solely the responsibility of a stupid George W. Bush, nor can Iraq be condemned to outer darkness forever.
Iraq is theoretically freer than it was in 2003. People can speak their minds, publish their opinions, and participate in a multiparty if fragile democracy. Real, competitive elections do take place. Young Iraqis, who have no memory of Saddam Hussein and represent half the population, tend to be hopeful, the AP reports. Baghdad “is throbbing with life and a sense of renewal.”
Iraq is now the world’s fifth-ranked oil producer, selling 4 million to 5 million barrels a day, twice as much as it was shortly after the war started. This income supports about 7 million citizens out of 40 million who receive a government salary or pension.
Basra, in Southern Iraq, is on its way to becoming one of the largest ports in the world. It is considered the country’s economic capital. Once known for its agriculture, rising temperatures due to climate change have made cultivation difficult. The land is degraded and water is salty.
Erbil, in the semi-autonomous northeastern Kurdistan region of Iraq, was apparently the biggest winner of the U.S. invasion. “Complexes of McMansions, fast food restaurants, real estate offices, and half-constructed high-rises line wide highways,” the AP reports. “Many members of the political and business elite live in a suburban gated community dubbed the American Village, where homes sell for as much as $5 million, with lush gardens consuming more than a million liters of water a day in the summer.”
In contrast, back in 2003, Erbil “was a backwater provincial capital without even an airport.” It quickly became an “oil-fueled boom town.” The contemporary story of the Kurds “is one of power and empowerment,” Bilal Wahab, a fellow at the Washington Institute think tank, told the AP.
Yet younger Kurds say,
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