Iraq

It’s been 21 years since the U.S., U.K., and a group of allied forces invaded Iraq and deposed its leader, Saddam Hussein. And it’s a little over two years since President Biden formally declared the end of the U.S. combat mission in the country.After decades of war, Iraq’s tech sector is coming into its own. But progress is slow going, says Asoz Rashid, CEO of iQ Group, a multi-sector tech company based in Iraq.  “Iraq’s tech sector mirrors Iraq in general, where the whole country has pretty much been neglected for 40…

Lisa Gutierrez | (TNS) The Kansas City Star The film that gives Travis Kelce his first billed credit as a movie producer received largely positive reviews and a standing ovation at its premiere. “My Dead Friend Zoe” debuted at the SXSW Film & TV Festival over the weekend. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end is one of 10 executive producers. Kelce was in Singapore with girlfriend Taylor Swift as she wrapped up a six-concert stand and did not attend the festival in Austin, Texas. The film’s director, Kyle Hausmann-Stokes,…

ODESA, Ukraine — The American Century is ending, with external adversaries outmaneuvering the United States in critical strategic contests worldwide, while internal extremists destroy American leadership. Whether one believes — as American officials say they do — that the purpose of U.S. power is to enforce a “rules-based” liberal international order and defend human rights, or whether one believes — as Russian President Vladimir Putin and his friends say they do — that the U.S. uses its espoused ideals as cover…

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Evidence suggests that writing was invented in southern Iraq sometime before 3000BC. But what happened next? Anyone interested in this question will find How Writing Made Us Human by Walter Stephens both an enjoyable and stimulating read. It offers what it calls an "emotional history" of writing, chiefly referencing academics and writers in the Western tradition. …

The 2003 invasion of Iraq left a small but noticeable impression on US hip-hop. “Stomp, push, shove, mosh, fuck Bush / Until they bring our troops home,” as Eminem rapped on Mosh, and he begged: “No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil,” alongside a bitingly direct video. “We rebellious … screaming ‘leave Iraq alone!’” Jay-Z rapped in 2003, and a year after the invasion, MF Doom questioned what the point of it all was on the Madvillain track Strange Ways: “All you get is lost children /…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Twenty years ago, the United States led the "coalition of the willing" in an invasion of Iraq, in the shadow of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US by militant Islamic network al-Qaeda. Western forces justified the war by claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (which would…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Twenty years after the invasion of Iraq, politicians continue to repeat the errors of the past by taking information from security briefings that they want to hear. Ahead of the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation, US and UK politicians used some of the intelligence gathered by western security…

This month sees the 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, with its promise to end the Saddam Hussein dictatorship and bring about democracy in the country. Today most Iraqis still suffer and there is no democracy in sight. Instead, the war unleashed brutal cycles of violence and changed life for millions, including Ghaith Abdul-Ahad. He trained as an architect in Baghdad (his pencil and watercolour sketches illustrate the book), but as the bombing began destroying his home city, curiosity and an ability to…

When The Hurt Locker, perhaps the most significant film about the Iraq war, won best picture, it also made a dubious kind of history, posting the worst box office of any previous winner. It had only made $11m at the time – and then several more millions after the Oscar bump – despite the pleadings of critics who insisted, correctly, that director Kathryn Bigelow and her screenwriter, Mark Boal, had made a studiously apolitical thriller about an army bomb squad that spends its days defusing improvised explosive devices.…

Archaeologists working in Iraq have uncovered the remains of a tavern dating back nearly 5,000 years they hope will throw new light on the emergence of the world's first cities. Archaeologists in southern Iraq have uncovered the remains of a tavern dating back nearly 5,000 years they hope will illuminate the lives of ordinary people in the world's first cities. …