Iraq 20 years after the invasion: How life is better and worse

When the US-led coalition invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003, the goal was to find and destroy Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and end Saddam Hussein’s regime.

But while those weapons never materialized, the hope was that by toppling Saddam and ending his brutal dictatorship, Iraq would at least emerge as a new democracy where Iraqis would enjoy new freedoms and a better standard of living.

Twenty years later, however, the results, decidedly mixed, said Iraqi experts, with the results coming at a huge cost. Estimates of war-related deaths vary, but the Iraq Agency estimates that around 200,000 civilians died after the invasion.

“Iraq is better than it was 20 years ago. But there are two caveats to that,” said Hamzeh Hadad, an Iraqi Canadian and adjunct fellow with the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, in a telephone interview. from Baghdad. It’s not up to where you want it to be or what. many had hope in 2003 when the dictator was removed.”

“And two, it comes out of a huge cost. The price we pay, it’s huge.”

No time to breathe

Of course before the invasion, Iraqis were imprisoned, tortured and killed by Saddam’s regime. And many Iraqis have died because of UN sanctions, Hadad said.

But “from the invasion, from the insurgency, from the sectarian civil war, from fighting ISIS, there are many lives lost,” he said.

Hadad noted that with all these disputes, Iraq does not have time to “really breathe.”

“We’re looking at the 20th anniversary of the war, but I don’t think we’ve rebuilt it until four or five years ago. .”

Still by some indicators, Iraqis are better off today than they were 20 years ago. In terms of democracy, since the 2003 invasion there have been six elections, eight governments and seven different prime ministers.

The Human Index Indicator is a metric compiled by the United Nations Development Program to quantify “the average performance of countries in the three basic dimensions of human development: long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living.”

In 2003, Iraq was given a score of 0.579, where life expectancy was around 65.9 years. It currently has a rating of 0.686 and a life expectancy of 70.4 years.

Additionally, according to UN figures, Iraq’s GDP per capita in 2003 was $855. in 2021 is 4.68 US Dollars. Luay al-Khatteeb, Iraq’s former electricity minister from 2018 to 2020, said electricity capacity has increased tenfold since 2003. Meanwhile, oil production has roughly tripled, he said.

Still, observers say, many of these measures do not reflect the full picture of Iraq and the significant challenges it still faces 20 years later.

Democracy in Iraq

“Democracy, free elections, federalism and market economy – all these are complete radical changes for the post-Iraq regime change – certainly a significant development since 2003,” said Al-Khatteeb.

“I am think there is a long way ahead of us in terms of determining the level of acceptance of democracy. But again, this is part of the gradual progress of state building after forty years of dictatorship and military rule.

Feisal Amin Rasoul al-Istrabadi, a former Iraqi diplomat, said it was commendable that the general election was completed on time.

“We are not delaying the election,” he said. “Although I can’t tell you that the election is as pure as the elections in the Scandinavian countries, I can say that the results are unknown before the votes are counted. And there are many surprises along the way. So we have peace. transition of power.”

Still, Freedom House, which annually rates the level of freedom in various countries, classifies Iraq in 2023 as not free.

“Iraq holds regular, competitive elections, and the country’s diverse partisan, religious, and ethnic groups generally enjoy representation in the political system,” the Washington-based non-profit said in its report. “However, democratic governance is plagued by corruption, militias operating outside the boundaries of the law, and the weakness of formal institutions.”

There is nostalgia for Saddam Hussein… There is more stability, ironically.– Zainab Saleh, associate professor at Haverford College

One of the biggest problems with Iraq’s democracy is that for more than 20 years, the political class has never shifted from thinking of itself as the opposition to the previous regime to being responsible for governing, Istrabadi said.

“It is a hodgepodge, a political class that never has a shared goal, a shared vision for the Iraqi state and an agenda that seems to be dictated more by personal agendas than by a larger vision for the country.

“I don’t think anyone in the Iraqi political class thinks about what Iraq will be like 20 years from now. I don’t think in 2003 anyone thought about what Iraq will be like in 10, 20 years. Basically, it’s an incompetent political class that has taken over the country and will very hard to get rid of.”

Meanwhile, militias continue to be a major problem, which also evokes nostalgia for Saddam.

“There is nostalgia for Saddam Hussein. It’s not because Iraq loves dictators. But in Saddam Hussein, you know you have one enemy. It’s Saddam Hussein,” said Zainab Saleh, associate professor of anthropology at Haverford College. “There is more stability, ironically. And this kind of violence comes from one group – the regime. “After 2003, you do not know where the violence comes from: militias, al-Qaeda, ISIS, the US military. “

“I spoke to Iraqis who suffered under Saddam Hussein. They lost family members in prison, and now they say Saddam Hussein’s time is better now,” said Saleh, the book’s author. Return to Ruin: Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia.

economy

A 20-year-old Iraqi in 2003 might have thought that if Saddam fell, it would be a great opportunity for Iraq.

“And of course, people have become very rich,” Istrabadi said. “But in general, those who have become rich have rarely been connected to the political class. So this is a kind of robber baron capitalism instead of a properly regulated free market where everyone has been taken relatively equally.”

While Iraq has a private sector, which is larger than it was in 2003, it is “very limited,” Al-Khatteeb said.

“And the main reason is because the political party that runs the event. They want to continue to control, to get a share of the pie with the financial allocation to the public sector that is controlled by the political quota system”

Meanwhile, Istrabadi said, the only real job prospect for Iraqis is to become a government employee. But the government cannot afford to pay huge public salaries.

“We failed to create a real private sector, which means our government sector is bloated and in fact unsustainable. At this level, the Iraqi state is not sustainable,” he said.

According to Istrabadi, according to service providers in Iraq, the government has largely failed.

“The fact remains that there is no investment and infrastructure, no real plan for a post-oil world. We are still burning gas instead of holding natural gas, we are burning a fortune every month,” he said.

“Service providers are very poor. I can’t tell you that we have built hospitals or schools worthy of the name in Iraq,” he said. “It’s a poor country because of decades of underinvestment in infrastructure.”

More freedom / protest

In theory, Iraq has been given more freedom since the fall of Saddam

“You constitutionally have the right to speak. There are many media in Iraq,” Istrabadi said.

In 2019, protests erupted against the government of prime minister Adel Abdul Mahdi with protesters demanding an overhaul of a political system that they say is deeply corrupt and impoverishes most Iraqis.

While hundreds were killed and thousands injured, it was a scene that would have been impossible during Saddam’s reign.

Saleh said the mass protests, while causing violence and death, also gave rise to hope.

“What is surprising is the young generation that gives hope to Iraq. The protesters blame the sectarian political system, corruption, lack of basic services, and high unemployment. In short, the protesters belong to the generation that only knows Iraq as Iraq. a failed country, and wants to create a different path by demanding country and rights, through the slogan ‘We Want a Country’ (Inryd Watan).

Hadad said the protests were very symbolic because “it’s literally when Iraqis stop worrying about terrorists, stop worrying about war and just demand, you know, a better life.”