Iraq is a country “that lives on the magic of its people, and their mystifying capacity to survive the misery that the last 1,400 years has thrown at them,” writes Ali Choukeir, former deputy bureau chief in Baghdad, who first arrived in the country in 2017. After living side-by-side with Iraqis and covering four years of uprisings, attacks and tragedies, the place and its people have etched an indelible place in his heart.