Amman, Jordan | March 19, 2026, 5:41 p.m. ET | 7 min read Just as Iraq was emerging from the shadows of decades of conflict and enjoying a surge in economic activity and stability, the country is being dragged into a regional war. Prior to the United States and Israel launching their attacks against neighboring Iran on Feb. 28, construction in Iraq was booming. Baghdad, the scene of countless suicide bombings over years of sectarian strife, was witnessing a renaissance. Energy, commercial, and housing projects were sprouting up, paving over damage left behind by the 2003 U.S. invasion and occupation and, years later, the war against the Islamic State group, which had conquered parts of Iraq and Syria in its bid for an independent Sunni Muslim caliphate. Iraq, an important center of Shia Islam, has a Shiite majority but large Sunni Arab and Kurdish minorities, each, traditionally, with their own political goals.…