The Iraq War began 20 years ago this week with a “shock-and-awe” campaign than rained rockets and bombs on Bagdad. Bagdad fell three weeks later. The real challenge came afterward when sectarian violence broke-out. In the years since, Iraq has begun to move forward, and it appears that young people are leading the way.
The 2003 war deposed a dictator who had ruled with tyranny for a quarter-century. Afterward, old guard Sunnis and Shiite militias fought for control. An estimated 300,000 Iraqis were killed, along with 4,500 US servicemen and another 3,500 civilian contractors. Today, however, most signs of the war have been erased. Bagdad has been stuccoed-over, and even Fallujah, scene of some of the war’s worst fighting, has been rebuilt and has cranes populating its skyline. Moreover, half of Iraq’s 40 million population aren’t old enough to remember the US invasion. As a result, they have a far different mindset than older relatives. They want more democracy, deplore Sunni and Shiite factions that still wield too much power, and complain about the lack of basic utility services. In 2019, they even led protests over the lack of services and roughly 600 were killed. Afterward, however, parliament changed election laws to open-up power sharing to more groups.
Iraq is still a relationship-based country—the remnants of a fiefdom. Power is maintained through wealth and connections and private militias still exist. However, election reform has begun to move the needle. While corruption is still endemic, as time goes by, it will become more manageable. Real change, however, won’t likely occur until today’s 20-somethings become tomorrow’s 40-somethings with power.
Many older Iraqis are still bitter about the US invasion. Some say the average Iraqi enjoyed a higher standard of living under Saddam than today and that they prefer a strong Iraqi leader over the current “pawns of foreign powers.” Yet those with a long-term view are more optimistic. An Iraqi professor who had spent many years in Hungary summarized: “I don’t think European countries were always as they are now. They went through a long process and lots of barriers, and then they slowly got better…I believe that we need to go through these steps too.” Bingo.
Source:
John Daniszewski, “20 Years After US Invasion, Young Iraqis See Signs of Hope,” Associated Press, 17 March 2023; accessed from https://apnews.com/article/iraq-war-invasion-anniversary-saddam-hussein-47b558083aad51d96106bc72342c49ea
Photo: Haider Hamdani, Al Jazeera
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