Iraqi Justice

A Forgotten War’s Overlooked Heroes

Earlier this summer Medhat al-Mahmoud, the chief justice of Iraq and president of the Iraqi Higher Judicial Council, came to Arizona to speak at the annual conference of state judges and at the state bar association’s yearly meeting. His presence was something of a surprise to most in the audience given how disconnected Americans have become from Iraq and our nation-building adventures there.

Nearly a decade after the American invasion unseated Saddam Hussein, there remains a marked divergence of understanding between Americans and Iraqis about what has occurred in Iraq in …