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And what really is painful to note and everybody here who has studied Middle Eastern history or is an Arab can tell you this firsthand

and you can find lots of videos online about this as well.

Iraq, this country, was one of the shining pinnacles of modern Arab lands.

In the 60s and 70s, up until the 80s,

Iraq was one of the most, in fact, would even say the most, developed an advanced country in the Middle East.

It had amongst the highest literacy rates, even amongst females in the 70s, the female literacy rate reached in the high 80%.

That is phenomenal for the Middle East.

In the 80s and 90s, the university of, not the 90s, excuse me, not the 90s, in the 70s and 80s,

the University of Baghdad, which is one of the largest universities in the Arab world,

was considered to be the most prestigious university in the entire

Middle East. The number of students, the graduates, the quality of education was

easily comparable to any Western institution.

Its health care as well was the product of much envy in other Arab countries.

And frankly, the Iraq of today can barely be recognized as having

anything to do with the Iraq of yester years. So what has happened from the

70s to 2015?

Well, no doubt the first sign of decline

began with the almost decade-long war between Iraq and Iran.

And for those of you that are above the age of 35, you all remember this, the 80s were always dominated by Iraq and Iran war. And this war of course was the beginning really. It decimated so much of the

economy, millions of people died and of course back then, of course Saddam

has been in power since the 70s.

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