The United States invaded the Levant 15 years ago – but the region’s scorched-earth ideology has kept the fire burning. A burning mural of Saddam Hussein in Kirkuk on April 11, 2003. (Patrick Barth/Getty Images) The United States intervened militarily in Iraq in 2003, 15 years ago this month, and the result was war and chaos. But the United States did not intervene in Syria i
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In the years since the U.S. invaded in March 2003, Iraq has seen two occupations — one by U.S. forces following the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime, and another by Islamic State militants after American forces withdrew. Now, after fifteen years of instability and war, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is trying to forge a lasting peace. That could be almost as tough as fight
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Preface and acknowledgements On 10 March 2011, a meeting took place between Nassar al-Rubaiee, acting Iraq’s Minister of Planning, Dr Sami Mati Polous, Deputy Minister for Technical Affairs, Gert Meinecke, the Danish Ambassador to Iraq, and myself. The meeting was extremely cordial. The metaphor in some of the Minister’s prose was not easy to unpack. On 11 March 2011, a Royal
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U.S. support for Iraqi oil export projects involving Turkey, the Gulf, and Europe can help keep undue Iranian influence at bay. Despite a fifteen-year security crisis that would have sunk most societies, Iraq has registered year-on-year oil production increases that make its energy sector a global success story. Going forward, Iraqi hydrocarbons will either be exploited by I
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Mohammad Hassan worries about the steady decline in the number of customers who come to his shop in Baghdad’s Souk al-Safafeer, the legendary copper market in the neighborhood of Bab al-Agha. The shop sports Hassan’s handmade copper products, mostly miniatures of Iraq’s symbols and monuments, such as the palm tree, the Lion of Babylon, the Malwiya Minaret in Samarra and Mosul
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