From Saddam Hussein’s fall to US 'occupation': How Iraq was rewritten

Reporting from Baghdad’s Firdos Square, where Saddam Hussein’s statue was toppled in 2003, Al Mayadeen English’s Lea Akil highlights how the US invasion reshaped Iraq far beyond regime change. The occupation outlawed the Baath Party, dissolved the army, and imposed a US-backed constitution that entrenched sectarian divisions. Sweeping economic decrees privatized state industries and tethered Iraq’s economy to IMF and World Bank policies, while foreign policy was realigned with Washington’s interests. What was presented as "liberation" left behind a fragmented, neoliberal order that continues to define Iraq’s political, security, and economic landscape today.