Iraq

Home to one of the ancient cradles of human civilization, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the modern nation of Iraq is a war-torn and troubled region. It emerged as an independent nation in the late 1950s, following the overthrow of a British-established monarchy from decades earlier. The Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party controlled Iraq from 1968 until 2003.
During the Ba’athist regime, Iraq aggressively invaded a number of nations in the region, leading to the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, and the 1990 Gulf War with U.N. forces led by the United States, after Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait. In 2003, the United States and its allies invaded under the pretext that Iraq had failed to abandon its weapons of mass destruction, as required by United Nations resolutions, and toppled the Iraqi government. A multi-party parliamentary system was installed and elections held in 2005, although the new government has faced continued challenges from insurgents and the potential for open civil war, exacerbated by ongoing conflict in Syria and other parts of the Middle East.
DESERT WARFARE Iraq has been a theater of war and site of military service for soldiers from around the world in recent years, particularly Americans and their allies, along with Middle East insurgents working with any number of factions inside and outside of Iraq. The crucible of desert warfare has hardened a number of soldiers and produced paramilitary mercenaries working for different groups. Military service in this part of the world may well be a part of the background of any para-military or former military characters.
AGENTS OF MASS DESTRUCTION The presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, other than those accounted for by the United Nations, has never been confirmed, but rumors persist of all manner of weapons researched, created, and secretly stockpiled before the toppling of the Ba’athist government, and potentially hidden, moved, or stolen since then. The world intelligence community keeps a close eye on the possibility of such weapons being discovered and either moved out of Iraqi territory or used within it.
In addition to various types of nuclear, biological, and (particularly) chemical weapons, rumors persist about top secret Iraqi research into “AMDs” or “agents of mass destruction,” namely artificially-induced superhumans. Most such rumors involve brutal programs where political prisoners or military “volunteers” were exposed to chemical agents and other dangers in a futile effort to trigger mutations or the development of super-powers, with the results of their failures disposed of or hidden in mass graves. Still, some believe these experiments may have seen some success, leading to the creation of super-agents who later escaped and remain at large.
THE PEACOCK ANGEL Northern Iraq is home to the minority Yazidi population, a Kurdish religious sect. They are monotheists who believe God entrusted Creation to a heptad of seven archangels, the greatest of which is Tawuse Melek, or “the Peacock Angel.” Commanded to bow to God’s newest creation, Adam (mankind), Tawuse Melek refused, being a primary creation of God’s own radiance. For this, God exalted him above all other angels. Because of the similarities between this and stories of Shaytan, Iblis, or Lucifer as a fallen angel (who also refused God’s command to bow before Adam), some Christians and Muslims consider Yazidi’s “devil worshippers,” and persecute them.
Yazidi folklore about their descent solely from Adam (and not Eve) through a kind of miraculous cloning and of the Peacock Angel as “lord of the Earth” leads some scholars to inquire about potential otherworldly intervention in the past, either alien or mystical (see The Djinn & the Blood of the Nephilim sidebar).

Type

Geopolitical, Country