https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19437/iraq-republic-of-fear
Well, [Iraq] may not be a better place, but is certainly less bad than it was 20 years ago.
Neighboring Iran is facing a bigger outflow of refugees, especially highly educated people, than Iraq.
In 2021, Iraq was no longer among the countries regarded as “vulnerable” in terms of food shortages and famine.
In terms of political and social freedoms, Iraq is also doing better than such neighbors as the Islamic Republic of Iran and the parts of Syria controlled by the Assad regime.
Facing such deadly challenges as the emergence of the Islamic State (ISIS/Da’esh) and the attempted Kurdish secession, post-Saddam Iraq has manifested a higher degree of resilience than many might have expected.
It has also succeeded in frustrating attempts by the Islamic Republic of Iran to stall the emergence of an Iraqi national army and the imposition of a militia state.
The war didn’t turn Iraq into a model of democracy. But, as an Iraqi friend put it the other day, it ended what Kanan Makiya had called “The Republic of Fear.”
In his picaresque novel Twenty Years After, a sequel to The Three Musketeers, French novelist Alexandre Dumas muses on the theme of “the benevolent despot” as a rampart against unbridled change that could lead to savage turbulences.