Iraq’s social, political, and economic state has been
critically damaged since the United States invaded in 2003, with the security
situation remaining fragile at best. “Eight years after the invasion, and
life in Iraq is marching backward,” said Dr. Hashim Al-Tawil,  professor and chair of the art history
program at Henry Ford  Community
College. Al-Tawil still has family in Iraq.

He says clean water, gas and electricity have become
precious commodities unavailable to the majority of the population, security is
close to non-existent, healthcare and social services have been reduced to
substandard, the quality of education has deteriorated, sectarianism is on the
rise and corruption has reached an unprecedented level.

Fr. Toma, of the St. Toma Syriac Catholic Church in
Farmington Hills, says the war has resulted in millions of Iraqi refugees
living around the globe. “Because there is no stability in Iraq, no
security in Iraq, no clear future for the people. That’s why they’re fleeing
the country…The educated Iraqis left the country unfortunately,” Fr. Toma
said.

He says most refugees are in neighboring Syria and Jordan,
both of which border Iraq. Several Iraqis live with about only four hours of
electricity a day, as opposed to before the war, when it was a more accessible
resource, he added.

According to Sharif Al-Shami, an Iraqi American living in Dearborn,
today Iraqis can speak more openly about social and political issues through
the media. He believes democracy is being established in Iraq. 

Imam Husham Al-Husainy, director of the Karbalaa Islamic
Education Center in Dearborn, agrees that Iraq’s social and economic state has
worsened since the war.  “It
brought it down, not up,” Al-Husseiny said. He says the invasion was more
an occupation, than liberation effort. “You can not occupy a (country) and
expect to have democracy,” he said. He says removing Saddam’s regime was
supposed to be a step forward to bringing democracy to Iraq, but it never
materialized. Al-Husseiny initally supported the invasion but later changed his
mind as Iraq spiraled into a failing state.

Following the invasion many historically significant
cultural artifacts were looted from Iraq’s museums, libraries and art
galleries. The country has one of the richest and oldest collections of
artifacts in the world.  Dr.
Al-Tawil says as the political situation in Iraq worsens, and the division of
Iraqi society deepens, the future of public monuments, art and culture in
general looks grim. About 1,000 rare and ancient artifacts have been destroyed
by the war, according to Fr. Toma.

Dr. Al-Tawil says Iraq was a functioning country headed by a
totalitarian regime, similar to many of its neighboring regimes. “Now Iraq
is a fragmented country that is going backward, run by a corrupt government and
corrupt parliament, with its wealth to the advantage of its officials or
foreign companies, but not the Iraqi people,” he said.

Fr. Toma said bombings have negatively impacted the
agriculture industry. The number of palm trees has also been drastically
reduced.

Toma is from a city near Mosul, and visits Iraq every two to
three years, but fears traveling to the area he once lived in because of safety
concerns. Christians have faced persecution after the war. Fr. Toma says
extremists have bombed 57 churches since then, and about 50 percent of Iraqi
Christians have left the country.

Dr. Al-Tawil said the most detrimental destruction was the
human toll that Iraq has suffered, and still is enduring. To defend the
invasion, the U.S. claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that it
was connected to the 9/11 attacks, and that Saddam Hussein and his regime were
a threat to America and the world, all of which were fabricated.

“These claims proved false quickly, but the (war) was
imposed on the entire international community by pressure and
intimidation,” Dr. Al-Tawil said.   “Eight years after the invasion and the U.S. has
built the largest “American embassy” in the world — the size of 80
football fields — in Baghdad,” Dr. Al-Tawil added. He says there are
currently 121 U.S. military bases in Iraq with the most advanced technology and
facilities.

“In other words Iraq became a regional American
military base and it seems unrealistic to expect to evacuate that base and
leave by the end of 2011, as has been announced,” Dr. Al-Tawil said.