No it wasn’t some utopia of course not, but at least the country functioned on a basic level, like it had reliable electricity and services, education and medic

No it wasn’t some utopia of course not, but at least the country functioned on a basic level, like it had reliable electricity and services, education and medical services (including research) and wasn’t ruined by war. How often do you see Iraqi scientists or doctors these days participate in international conferences? Whereas that used to be commonplace.