They really are! Yes, I took these photographs back in 2023

Iraq was not freed by speeches or promises, but by sacrifice. And today, it stands unbroken, a living testament to those martyrs and to a civilisation that has endured invasion, betrayal, and destruction, yet refuses to be erased.

Victory was earned. History remembers.

We mourn the countless innocent souls stolen by wars engineered far beyond our borders. Every street, every city, every inch of liberation was paid for with the blood of my people, my kin.

That victory came only after some of the most brutal and unforgiving urban warfare the modern world has ever witnessed.

Today, we honour the sons of Iraq who gave everything, their blood, their futures, and their lives to defend and reclaim their homeland.