The .iq Debacle - how long has Iraq been a nation? Hmmmm?

I saw this today... http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3207 Ali Uzri, an Iraqi technology consultant, has been waiting for his country to get on the information superhighway for a long time.'"Near my house in Baghdad, there'?s an Internet cafe called Dreamnet.iq,"? says Uzri. "?The sign has been up for over a year ?even though for most of that time it was the .iq part that was just a dream."? That's because, despite the fact that Iraq has been a sovereign nation for some 15 months, its top-level Internet domain, .iq, has been in a legal limbo. This is from an article. Now - big question. Was my geography wrong? Or has Iraq been a sovereign nation for longer than most of the ex-British colonies? Since when has Iraq been a sovereing nation for less than 2 years? Was it a colony (Whose?) for most of my 40 years and somehow I missed it? Ignorance is multiplying! Or is it a case of rewriting history to suit personal (or national) needs?