ABSTRACT
The Iraq War had profound impacts not only on Iraq, but on many other countries as well. Iraq's Kurdish region became a de facto independent state, and much of the rest of the country experienced a resistance insurgency, counter -insurgent military actions, and sectarian violence. Yanar Mohammed of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq noted that every woman in the streets was now veiled. Despite the official restoration of Iraqi sovereignty in 2004, it was apparent that Iraq enjoyed nothing comparable to the level of sovereignty that it had before the 1991 Gulf War. Developments in Afghanistan raised further doubts about the Iraq War. The Iraq War had varying economic effects on different groups of Americans. The most direct impact of the war on the United States (US) military was the number of soldiers killed or wounded. Achieving Iraqi democracy seems to rely as much, if not more, on political change in the US as on developments in Iraq.
