Iraq Is Improving Because Porn Is Flourishing

In every country in the region except Lebanon, Israel and Turkey, pornography is illegal, in a nod to conservative Muslim sentiment. That's not to say it doesn't exist — international satellite channels and the Internet pipe it straight into people's homes, though many governments try to block obscene webster. Police, not having to grapple with daily bombings like in Baghdad, have more time to keep it off the streets.

But after the 2003 invasion, it appeared freely on Baghdad's sidewalks — a sign of how all rules were suddenly sidelined with the toppling of Saddam.