Iraq

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Religions:

Muslim 97% (Shia 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%)

Christian or other 3%

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25% of Iraq is below the poverty line

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Languages: Arabic, Kurdish (Kurmanji and Sorani)

RECENT CONFLICT:

The recent conflict in Iraq is the war that the United States of America is having against them. This war has been going on for eight years, starting in 2003. There have been many new reports about the Iraqi War from logs, journals, newspapers, and magazines recently. This essay will inform you on the War in Iraq, how it began, and any new conflicts coming from it recently.

The Iraqi War started shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York City, New York and on the Pentagon in Washington D.C. This was an Iraqi Al-Qaeda attack against the United States. The leader of these attacks was Sadam Hussien. The U.S’s at the time president, George W. Bush did not directly say that the 9/11 attacks were the reason of the start of the war, but it is obvious it is because soon after the attacks, we were in war. This was has caused roughly 77,000 deaths in Iraq between fighters. This war is still going on, and won’t end until Iraq and the United States come to an agreement and stop fighting over everything and stop attacking each other.

President: Jalal Talabani

HISTORY:

Throughout it's history, Iraq has been apart of many different cultures and empires along with other now, present day, countries. In the beginning, it was apart of the Sumerian culture, the Babylonian culture , the Assyrian culture , and the Medes culture. The empires it belonged to throughout time were the Persian,

Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian and Sassanid. After awhile, Iraq broke off from these empires and became an Islamic country. Even when Iraq broke off from the other empires, many other empires tried ruling it. Finally, Iraq became an independent country in 1932.

Today, in Iraq, there have been many issues. Iraq is currently at war with the U.S. Many people have lost their lives in this war, including helpless citizens. Also, Iraq's economy has been back and forth for the past few years. Due to the security upgrade Iraq is now using, the economy has risen. But, because of the supplies used for the war, the economy also drops. Unemployment also remains a huge problem throughout the country. But, Iraq is trying to get things on track.

40th largest country in the world

Life Expectancy: 69.95 years

Median Age: 20.6 years old

GDP: $110.1 billion

Capital: Baghdad

Iraq

Population: 28,945,569

Waterways: Tigris River, Uphrates River, Persian Gulf

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nouri_al-Maliki_2006-Nov-30.jpg

Prime Minister: Nuri al-Maliki

googlemaps.com

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Natural Resources: Oil, natural gas, phosphates, sulfur.