As an Iraqi, I do ask this question to myself a lot, what the world opinion on modern Iraq. It changed a lot especially after ISIS war, but people here generally don’t value the change that much due to high unemployment rates, drought, and bossy militias.
One thing that struck me as an adult is that I grew up learning about some ancient civilizations, but in school I never learned that Mesopotamia is a location in present day Iraq. It just feels weird that we could study about ancient cultures and not learn where they are on the globe today.
Didn’t you have a picture of the cities were in the school manual? I find that surprising
I think of it as a highly imperialized and exploited country full of workers trying to make it a better place for eachother. In short, a victim of empire who deserves our material support in their struggle. However, this is my position on a lot of places.
I don’t know much about modern Iraq outside of how the US has affected it in all honesty. I know little about its current governmental structure or the major political forces at play. Would you mind giving me a brief synopsis?
There are like 20 or even more government parties, I stopped counting them really, they all fight for who will be in charge of different sections of the government each one of them having no chance of agreement with each other, which results in a a political conflict the last 14 years at the end of every election cycle on which party is the prime minister nominated from, in the end it comes down to the nomination of an acceptable figure among these parties. And it doesn’t take long until each one of them starts digging holes in the way of that figure for the sake of benefits, either Money, investment contracts، positions amongst the authority.
It really doesn’t effect us that much now with them recently settling down to form an electoral alliance in the last 2 years. It has become more safe the last 6-8 years so much to hold sports events “recently The Arabian Gulf Cup Which was won by Iraq btw”. Iraq has come along way and now somewhat on par with its neighboring countries.
I’m glad to hear things are improving for y’all :D
Best of luck o7
2million people were victims of american murderers. The americans like to forget that their foreign policy and behaviour of their military is basically identical to the IDF.
It’s really funny if you think about it, what America identified as terrorists and imprisoned at Abu Ghraib prison are now politics controlling Iraq’s economy each one with his own militia to protect him from the law. We now only looking for the future with people tending to forget what happened 20 years ago in the hope that things get better.
The anti war movement against the illegal war on Iraq was the biggest mobilization in history. Millions of people all over the world tried to stop the war but we’re ultimately unsuccessful. Which brings us to a bigger question, why don’t we the people have political power. I believe it comes down to greed, and capitalism. How can we stop these wars? The genocide on Palestine? The only weapon we have is to withhold our labour. Organize, unionize and strike.
It’s your last line. We have to find a way to take the world back from billionaires, by force if necessary. It’s unreal that a small handful of assholes have the power over the billions of us that they do.
First Past The Post voting artificially limiting our options in the voting booth.
There were plenty of us that saw right through the bullshit even before the war started but unfortunately because the SCOTUS decided the election for us we were stuck with a gang of money hungry pieces of shit… I mean we still are, but we were then too…
I was young and naive so I wanted to join the military in hopes of getting some technical skills, but even as a 17 year old idiot I saw right through bushs bullshit and said fuuuuccckkkkk that. Now I work in a factory… Fuck Bush, fuck Cheney, fuck Rumsfield… War criminals the lot of them.
To get to OPs question, in America I think we have a collective shame about it so it’s pretty much never spoken about at all. The state of Iraq is only ever mentioned within the context of ISIS :(
I’m an American and a Texan. I feel shame, anger, guilt, worry, and pity.
Bush (a Texan) back in the day started a 10 year war with your country that my taxes paid and my generation died for. This was done with completely fabricated evidence. Bush Senior, about decade before, undermined the foundations of free speech and journalism to facilitate Desert Storm.
I’m part of a military industrial machine that kills people to make some of my country men rich.
I’m very different from a typical person from the middle east. I don’t even abide or respect abrahamic religions. Those differences don’t make me angry though, the world would be better to leave those different than me with peace and quiet. I want Iraqi people to be happy and content, for the selfish reason that I don’t want to think about the region.
I’m extremely fearful that the powers that be in Washington will decide to invade Iraq again in a decade or so.
This is a much more serious version of my answer, which was going to be
“That’s one of the places where we decided oil was more precious than human life; I don’t really think of Iraq because the only discourse about it in my country is blatant xenophobia and I’m still working on finding ways around the propaganda”
Cradle of civilization. Brilliant art math and architecture. A total victim of countless imperial aggression due to its resources. Will never forgive what the US did and the fighters in Fallujah were heroes.
I wish I could go there and meet people
As an American, sorry about the war that my country committed against yours for no good reason. And I’m sorry for all the innocent people that my country killed. I wish your country well, and hope you can achieve peace and stability for your people.
I think Iraq has a similar climate to the desert where I live. Having grown up in the desert of the US, I have always wanted to visit other deserts to see how other cultures deal with the heat/dryness firsthand.
Beyond that and the obvious war news I do not know too much about Iraq.
I don’t think about Iraq. Should I?
should you think about the planet earth too?
I don’t think they meant it as a slight against your homeland. You probably don’t think about my homeland either, and idk why someone in Iraq would be concerned about Louisiana
I didn’t took it that way, and i know he didn’t mean something against my country either. It’s more of a general idea rather than thinking of something. I don’t think of the US that much but I do have a general idea about it, current political situation, and the states.
Wonder if that’s more of a language thing. You got a handle on English so presumably get more news about the English speaking world. If I read Arabic maybe I’d have more exposure to Iraqi goings-on.
Ehh, I disagree. A counter example; I’d bet money that folks in England know more about our country than we do theirs, especially when it comes to politics and current issues. I’m pretty sure most Americans wouldn’t be able to name the British PM or even what party is in power there. Everyone there probably knows Biden is the president and that he is a Democrat.
Also, Al Jazeera publishes in English, I don’t think language is the primary barrier. American media just generally doesn’t cover foreign affairs all that much (and when they do, they generally do a shit job).
Just going by population, you should about as much as you think about Canada.
Uh oh, I think about Canada a lot.
I didn’t see the domain at first, haha. Substitute in Italy or Poland if you want. You should think about Sweden or Greece a lot less, going by population like this.
By money or something like that Iraq is way smaller than Canada, and by geopolitics way bigger. By land it’s between Sweden and Japan. We’re all kind of in an information bubble in the first world. It’s okay, the first step is knowing you have a problem.
I think its history, particularly ancient is fascinating.
(bart simpson voice) The exports of
LibyaIraq are numerous in amount. One thing they export is corn, or as the Indians called it, “maize”. Another famous Indian was Crazy Horse. In conclusion,LibyaIraq is a land of contrasts. Thank you.joking aside, sorry about America.
I know almost nothing about it, but I find ancient Mesopotamia fascinating.
Hmm. Unofficial Kurdish state in the north, typical Middle Eastern country in the south. Lots of Iranian influence. It had a wild ride thanks to warmongering Americans and Saddam, but as far as I can tell it’s settled down since the end of ISIS as a territory-holding entity.
Aside from the politics, it’s home to a lot of the oldest cities and ruins in existence. Like the rest of the region it used to be greener, but millennia of agriculture takes a toll.
I’m Canadian. I would say that I don’t think much about it in terms of current events, I haven’t heard much in the news about it in recent years. And my assumption from that is that’s probably a good sign. There used to be a steady stream of bad news, and “no news” lies along the path in between “bad news” and “good news.”
I did see a video recently about Iraq’s plans for a giant new port facility on that little tidbit of Persian Gulf shoreline it has and road/rail link from it up through to Turkey, and thence onward into Europe. It sounded like a very optimistic development if it can be seen through to fruition, opening an alternative trade corridor to the Suez Canal. Anything that diversifies a country’s economy is a good thing, and anything that removes single points of failure in global shipping networks is also a good thing. I can’t imagine the Houthi obstruction of the Red Sea would still be a problem by the time that route opens up but at least it’ll be an option if something like it happens again.
It is a country with people in it of whom some suck and some don’t suck. Like everywhere really.
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For 100 years women was treated as the inferior gender not just in Iraq but all around the Arabian Gulf area due to religious/customary reasons. Iraq was one of the first countries to allow women to drive, it was and will be the most secular middle eastern country. After the American invasion on Iraq women’s rights was at decline because of the war, and it’s now even better than ever. So they feel pretty much normal I guess, they even sometimes have more freedom than us men here.
It’s great to hear a bit of inside news. It’s so sad that when war subsides news coverage dus as well. Your post made me realize that.
I really hope the middle east can get the corruption of oil or of it’s system and the rigidity of the extreme interpretations of Islam.
Thanks for the perspective, brother.
I wonder why my comment was removed by the mods!?
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