The world's public is overwhelmed by the circulation of videos on world-renowned channel channels, featuring the remains of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein intact. In fact, Saddam Hussein has been hanged more than 12 years ago on December 30, 2006, at the US Military Base in Kazimain, Baghdad. Before executing a hanging on Saddam Hussein, the US Coalition overthrew Saddam Hussein, 15 years after their invasion on April 9, 2003. After the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, life in Iraq changed. The fall of Saddam's regime effectively ended the 12-year embargo imposed by the United Nations in Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. About 50 million Iraqis returned to the international trade arena , although according to the United Nations (UN), nearly ten million people live on less than $ 2.2 per day. With oil reserves of 150 billion barrels, Iraq is the second largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. And with an oil barrel now worth three times the price in 2002, Iraq's GDP has risen from $ 29 billion in 2001 to $ 171 billion by 2016. But the country has failed to diversify the economy, and the government still attracts 99 per cent of its revenue from the oil sector. Since 2003, the oil sector has generated more than 800 billion dollars in revenues, but corruption has cost the country 312 billion dollars, according to the Center for Economic Development. 2. Political Baath Party - single, omnipresent and powerful - has disappeared. In the last 15 years of elections, Saddam's secular party has given way to a myriad of political forces, many dominated by religious or tribal leaders. A proportional representation system that secretly reserves government posts for different Iraqi communities, with Shi'a - two thirds of the population - was overshadowed by the Sunni minority of Saddam, which now dominates political and military institutions. 3. Diplomatic Saddam against Iran for eight years. But today, Iraq's strong neighbor to the east is allied with many Iraqi political parties and supports armed factions. Saudi Arabia, a Sunni-majority country and Iran's biggest rival, is trying to return to Iraq after decades of fighting that began with Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. The relationship between Baghdad and Riyadh was recently warmed with several official visits. Caught between Saudi and Iran, and neighbors with war-torn Turkey and Syria, Iraq regularly claims it will not be used as a battleground in any proxy war. Relations with the United States have also grown over the last 15 years. Americans have alternately been seen as liberators, invaders, enemies or allies. The US-led coalition of anti-militant forces has been working with Iraqi forces against the Islamic State (IS) since 2014. After an estimated one million people, including 600,000 in Baghdad, the Iraqi Christian community - which includes Chaldean, Assyria, Armenia and Syria (Catholic and Orthodox) - now has only 350,000 members. Strictly suppressed during Saddam's reign, the Kurds made sure that the constitution drafted after the US invasion extended their autonomy to the north of the country. They have gained territory and prerogatives.
